Tightroping

Between the abandoned
tannery’s crumbling bricks
and the thick, dark muck
that lined the Neponset River,
Bud Metayer and I would
balance on the rusted train
tracks, arms spread wide,
taking cautious steps along
the shaky rails. If we fell
off, we’d start over, those
were the rules, moving
slower, more deliberately
as if at a dangerous height
and another misstep would
send us tumbling down to
either drown like stripped
Buicks in the sluggish water
or crash into the town’s
dilapidated storefronts.
That’s how we spent our
afternoons the summer
before fifth grade: each
passing day edging 
a little closer to the safety 
we told each other was
somewhere in the distance.

RICHARD JORDAN

Richard Jordan’s poems appear or are forthcoming in Cider Press Review, Connecticut River Review, Rattle, Valparaiso Poetry Review, New York Quarterly, Gargoyle Magazine, Sugar House Review, Tar River Poetry, South Florida Poetry Journal, and elsewhere. His debut chapbook, The Squannacook at Dawn, won first place in the 2023 Poetry Box Chapbook Contest.