Joshua Bocher’s poems have appeared at Illuminations, The Germ, Subliminal Interiors, The Brown Literary Review, and A Handful of Stones. Joshua lives with his wife in Somerville MA and he works for public health nonprofit organizations in the Boston area.

Contemplating Distance
By Joshua Bocher

I.

I am sitting on a green chair
Contemplating distance.

My glasses are sitting
Slant
On my nose.

You are sitting on a plane
Glancing out of
A half-opened window,
The skies blue the sea blue,
A small grey cloud
Beckoning thunder
In the distance.

The walls here are all white.
I’ve forgotten to nail
Our pictures
To them.

II.

Missing my wife
Unironically,

A month is a long time.
A minute is a long time.

A short solitude is pleasant.
To be alone a long time
Is dreary.

I can see the cycles of birth and dust,
Guile and rehabilitation,
Pills and truth.

If only there were a way
To bottle my memories
And open them at just
The right time.