The Neighbors Downstairs
While growing up,
we always had neighbors
downstairs, the two-family frame house
the norm for renting
in the New England mill towns
we moved between.
We had to watch our step,
my sister and I, a caution
we came to carry
as we stepped outside, walked
to school, navigated playgrounds,
shuffled to classes then slipped
through the years, leaving behind—
from this least of our guarded ways—
a shallow, vanishing trail.
• • •
Mark Belair’s poems have appeared in such journals as Alabama Literary Review, Euphony Journal, Harvard Review, and Michigan Quarterly Review. Author of seven collections of poems, his most recent are the companion volumes Taking Our Time and Running Late (Kelsay Books, 2019). He has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize multiple times, as well as for a Best of the Net Award. www.markbelair.com