{"id":4721,"date":"2023-09-28T17:23:44","date_gmt":"2023-09-29T00:23:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/?p=4721"},"modified":"2024-12-05T09:46:57","modified_gmt":"2024-12-05T17:46:57","slug":"two-poems-by-todd-boss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/two-poems-by-todd-boss\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Poems by Todd Boss"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"issue64\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Found in\u00a0Willow Springs 86<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to Author Profile<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

\n\n

Two Poems by Todd Boss<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Still We Like to Imagine<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\nthat behind the front
\ndesk of every Quality
\nInn and Cracker Barrel
\nin every hamlet in\nAmerica there’s a girl
\njust waiting for some
\nhandsome stranger
\nto linger after the ring
\nof her cash register,\nlook into her eyes and
\ncroon Darlin’, this town
\nis too small for a woman
\nlike you, <\/em>but it’s just not
\ntrue, some women and\ntheir towns are in fact in
\nperfect proportion to
\none another, and some-
\ntimes Who you callin’
\nDarlin’ <\/em>is the only real\nanswer to such a question
\n-never mind what one
\nwould rather do, or who,
\nif she did go, would
\nlook after mother.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weren’t You a Kid Once, O’Brien<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\nis the question on this sunny
\nsummer Sunday morning
\nhere in the middle of our
\nblock in big block letters in
\nchalk on the sidewalk in
\nfront of the front walk that
\nleads to the house of
\nO’Brien.\nAn indictment,
\nalmost a condemnation,
\na sharp stroke of passion,
\nit was apparently written
\nby a parent of neighborhood
\nchildren whose practical
\nantics were enough to anger
\none or another elder O’Brien.\nIt’s a rhetorical question,
\nas those of us who come
\nto this concrete chalkboard
\napprehend without having to
\nknow what mishap happened
\nunder the elms or ceilings, in
\nthe presence or the absence
\nof O’Brien.
\nWe need only
\nheed the tone of the accuser
\nto know that no number of
\nexcuses for bad behavior can
\nout-shout this dustiest one,
\nthis final appeal for a justice
\nthat must-one feels certain
\n-inspire, as it does in every
\none who comes across it, a
\ncuriously human feeling in
\nour good man O’Brien,
\nwho,
\njust as his judge had planned,
\nwill have no choice but to change
\ninto a pair of worn chinos
\nfrom church clothes,
\nunreel
\nto its furthest reaches the garden
\nhose,
\nand stand in the afternoon
\nhear, in view of us, the members
\nof his generation
\nand spray-
\ntill the day’s pink neon lesson\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

is washed into the street and away.<\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3390,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wpo365_audiences":[],"wpo365_private":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4721"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3390"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4721"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37386,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4721\/revisions\/37386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}