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Take Heart: A Conversation in Poetry: The man in front of you
Edited and introduced by Wesley McNair, Maine Poet Laureate
Today?s poem by Alice Persons of Westbrook describes the mysterious and elusive man just beyond a woman?s grasp.
The man in front of you by Alice Persons
is just tall enough has soft black hair and golden skin wide shoulders and smells goodyou stand behind him in the movie line or buying flowers on boylston street or see him on the subway not far down the car his clean brown hands on the overhead railthe man in front of you could have just killed someone or might have a bitter face may love no one or always sleep alonethe man in front of you hurries out of the station or rushes around the corner and vanishes into a cab you never see his face but in dreams he comes to you and does not slip away
Take Heart: A Conversation in Poetry is produced in collaboration with the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. Poem copyright © 2011 Alice Persons. Reprinted from Thank Your Lucky Stars, Moon Pie Press, 2011, by permission of Alice Persons. Questions about submitting to Take Heart may be directed to Gibson Fay-LeBlanc, Special Consultant to the Maine Poet Laureate, at mainepoetlaureate@gmail.com or 207-228-8263. Take Heart: Poems from Maine, an anthology collecting the first two years of this column, is now available from Down East Books.