POLYPHONY

1.
One day in 1996 as I was commuting home through thick traffic along Deer Park Ave, I looked out my car window and saw a gaggle of geese lounging on a median strip, poking at the dry grass.

And if geese have eyes, then our eyes surely met…

2.
Taeko and I pulled out of Charlottesville towing an overloaded U-Haul trailer with an ’89 Camry. We strained over steep hills heading north, and when we stopped for the night in Gettysburg, we saw that the weight of the trailer was separating the bumper from the car.

In an effort to lighten the load, we jettisoned some nonessential furniture and boxes of books and notebooks, making a silly promise to ourselves that we would one day return to Gettysburg, to reclaim at least the boxes.

Grad school was over, and I was heading to New York to look for a job…

3.
I’ve seen what happens out there in the wind on the wire. And I chose instead the pursuit of safety…