Ira Sadoff: Old Selves (read by James Anderson)

Ok, I no longer want them,
the many selves I had to manage

that exhausted everyone. I believed in
angels then, thought I might be

one -- that would be me,
flying off on a tangent, just to land

on someone's balcony.
But so little could I see from there

I longed for company
with wings: too often I took flight

just to feel the air slap my cheek.

Copyright 2020 Ira Sadoff. From Country, Living by Ira Sadoff (Alice James Books, 2020)

Ira Sadoff was born in 1945 in Brooklyn, New York. He has taught at colleges and universities including the University ofVirginia, the Iowa Writer’s Workshop and the M.F.A. program at Warren Wilson College. He is currently the Arthur Jeremiah Roberts Professor of Literature at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. He is the author of nine volumes of poetry.

James Anderson is a fiction writer whose work has always been informed by poetry. His books include the international best-selling novels Lullaby Road and The Never-Open Desert Diner.