James Conroy’s poetry and short fiction appear in Blue Unicorn, The Cafe Review, Xanadu, the Iconoclast, Freefall, Speakeasy, The Grove Review and numerous other fine literary journals. He is also the author of five published novels including The Anarchist and Literally Dead.
Winter 2012
Table of Contents - Vol. VIII, No. 4
Poetry Translations Fiction Non-fiction Reviews
James Conroy
The gap of sense between memory and heart
continues to amaze me. Only this morning
I awoke before the alarm to find you
still beside me in this new season
sprung on us like tender rain, the bedroom
window curtain trembling the way you do
when making love in the afternoon on our day
off and the room is bright and the ice cream man
is outside grinding his monotonous nursery rhyme.
You once asked what tune that was and it took me
hours to remember. Heard it a thousand times.
Sang it as a child. But just then it was lost.
I was that carried away. Looked up at the window
from the bed. Lace as calm as your skin.
© James Conroy
