Aaron Burch
FAR FROM THE HUDSON
After Kanye and Wu Tang
: the high school I went to!
: the other high school!
After every rapper who shouted-
out every neighborhood, every
nook and cranny and part
of town they grew up in.
: the bank building with the
fountain out front, that we
often talked about
filling with laundry detergent.
: that one great skate spot!
: the other one that wasn’t
as good, but was closer!
After that one Ashbery poem
where he basically just lists
a bunch of rivers. After Toyota,
for naming a truck after
the town I grew up in.
: the community college!
It’s nearly always raining
though more mist than
rain. Everything wet,
but green, too. Moldy, mossy.
Certainly squirrels
lived in the woods.
: the lake our buddy lived on!
: the other one my grade
school friend lived on, though
we never talked much after
elementary school.
: putt putt!
: the fair!
: the strip with all
the pawn shops!
: the comic book store
where I bought my first
X-Men. First comic
I bought only because
it had an alternate
cover, and I thought it might
someday be worth something.
First independent comic,
independent anything.
Maybe not my first comic,
first X-Men, first indie
something, probably published
by someone in his bedroom.
But I remember buying
comics there nonetheless.
It’s not around anymore.
Closed some time ago.
Though, really, I haven’t
bought a comic book
in nearly as long.
We never did put
detergent in that fountain.
We didn’t graffiti
the water tower
like we said we might.
Or paint the parking lot
or the skylights
of our high school
like we also said.
After all that.
I still own my skateboard,
though it’s just hanging
on a bike hook in my
garage. I haven’t touched it
in whoknowshowlong.
I’m not sure if I miss it
or not.