Abstract
The Joneses John Westbrook (bio) They made it seem so easy being them,filing away the days like tax returns,balanced, complete and all in working order.We marveled how they thrived at being them.Their minivans and living rooms absorbedtragedy and triumph without breaking stride.They altered in their ways accordingly,maybe wary of upsetting expectation,content with doing what they had to do.They lived as if the world were but a backdropto the unfolding actions of their lives,and we the empty margins of the landscape,sidelined in the wake of their resolve.To have been free to choose and chosen this! Ask and they could not have asked for more.Behind the picket fences, privet hedgesand low, familiar growls of family dogs,their shaven lawns and Sunday papers' wavesheld us at arm's length like tepid handshakes.When from the streets we watched them through their windows,drawing the curtains or kissing lamps goodnight,we dreamt their eyes adjusting to the darknessof memory's cautious, groping navigations,met with the same uncertainties as ours.Surely there were those among them wholaid ears to pillows stuffed with restless thoughts,or suspected something similar of us.Or was that the difference between them and us? [End Page 442] John Westbrook JOHN WESTBROOK formerly served as assistant poetry editor for Subtropics. His poems have appeared in The Southampton Review and The New Criterion. Copyright © 2018 Michael Brown
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