Moving Day

John Bargowski

Nothing seems to fit through the door
of my daughter’s room anymore.What we easily carried upstairs
twenty years ago gets stuckgoing back through the doorway,
or wedged tight in the stairwell.So we have to back up and unscrew
the legs from her dresser,tap out nails holding the side and top
panels of the cedar wardrobethat I’m sure came up in one piece.
The narrow curving stairsof our old farmhouse not a problem
for her fiancée, who takes themtwo at a time, and, unlike me—
who’s been twice caught at the back windowstaring at the yellowing walnut—
never leaves the room empty-handed.

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John Bargowski has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and New Jersey State Council on the Arts. His book Driving West on the Pulaski Skyway (Bordighera Press, 2012) was selected for the Bordighera Prize. He lives with his family in the Skylands of northwestern New Jersey.

New Letters

Volume 84, Number 1

Kansas City, Missouri

University of Missouri-Kansas City

Editor-in-Chief
Christie Hodgen

Assistant Editor
Ashley Wann

“One of America’s most consistently interesting literary magazines. Both on the air and on the page, New Letters makes a serious contribution to culture across the nation.”
—Alan Cheuse, National Public Radio book critic

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