Sherry, Sherry,
The pride of Dewey High, class of ’95,
Who would’ve thought?
Just a year ago you fell for Constantine,
A promising Canadian-born Sumo wrestler.
The two of you ran off across the globe,
To the beautiful and beckoning Japan.
He drove you from the airport in a purple Lexus,
With reinforced shocks and fuzzy dice
Hanging from the rear-view mirror.
You thought it was crazy, and cool.
Twenty-three years old,
You didn’t know you would become
Wife number four – it’s legal for
Sumo wrestlers, a perk of the trade.
You called me last May, from Osaka;
I could hear the rain drops,
Pounding on the phone booth.
He treats me well, you said, I’m happy, …
How is Brooklyn? … That told me everything.
And I said, Sherry, it’s all gone:
The days when we could lie in a wheat field,
In Hamilton, New York, staring at the stars
During the steamy August nights,
Sipping cherry Kool-Aid, laughing like idiots.
You started saying something else, but stopped;
We both hung up, --nothing more to say.
It was just one of those things.
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Reviews of "One of Those Things"
Reviewed by *********** ********** (Reader)
Reviewed on October 11, 2002
I like your writing, it's very interesting. No brash colour, rather it comes across as black and white and easy to read. Thanks, Dani.
Robin Ouzman Hislop's poetry is certainly in dialogue with some of the key architects of the 'poetics of indeterminacy' – both the Modernist strands represented by the likes of Beckett and Stein, and the postmodernist strands represented, initially,
This collection of poetry addresses the nature of time, reflections on the natural world, the difficulty of loss,
contemporary social issues and gratitude for life.