The Boy in the Full-Length Women’s Fur Coat
by Rhett Iseman Trull
He lives in New York City, rides
the L Train late — it’s almost
empty — thinks of her,
the girl he keeps loving
and losing, the girl who sleeps alone
tonight, somewhere in the Carolinas
where the stars have almost emptied the sky
of black. She must love him still,
the way last night’s dreams
linger in the morning’s mood. She must
love him despite his wandering.
The L pulls late into Union Square.
His date gave up, went on without him
to the bar whose name he can’t remember.
The sky is a black laugh above him,
driving down its rain. The city’s lights
skate the puddles like fallen fireworks. No one
to shine on, to turn on.
He remembers the night
the dunes caught fire. It was July 4th
at Emerald Isle. And she was scared, the girl
he keeps loving, whose name,
on his tongue, means hunger. Scared
in her sundress and yellow
hair ribbon, she let him skate
his fingers around her naked
ankles. He tries
to prefer these city girls with their
piercings, their way of staring hard
into the light like statues, these dates
who go on without him,
give up, despite his biceps, his spiky hair.
For awhile he shone on, turned on, as always,
not even missing the tick of the rain
through leaves, the shutters and kickplates
of suburbs. Or her, the girl whose dreams
lingered behind his every move
once upon a time for a year or two.
He lights a cigarette
just to be holding something. Strangers
pass, faces half-hidden by scarves.
Maybe he will follow one, sit beside her
on the L. Late, when it’s almost empty.
Arm around her just to be holding
a stranger, who will leave. And he’ll shudder,
loving her still, the girl left behind in her
one-stoplight town that’s lost
its mystery yet still goes on
when the streets have emptied
and even the strays
have fallen asleep with their hunger.
Rhett Iseman Trull's (Jim’s sister) poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, Best New Poets 2008, Prairie Schooner, The Southern Review, and other publications. Her awards include prizes from the Academy of American Poets and the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Foundation. She received her B.A. from Duke University and her M.F.A from University of North Carolina, Greensboro, where she was a Randall Jarrell fellow. She and her husband publish Cave Wall in Greensboro, North Carolina. The above is reprinted from her 2008 poetry collection the The Real Warnings which is available through Anhinga Press.