Caleb Perry Murdock

Spots

Inside my old-man’s lair, an apartment
I leave only rarely, and gladly too,
for it is now my infirmities that
tell me what I can and cannot do,

and I obey them, there are certain spots
that I especially love, that mean more
than floorboards were ever meant to, like this
threshold bridging two rooms, askance a door,

my den, where my spirits sometimes soar
as I ply poesy to soothe a planet gaping
discord, and my diner, where pleasures bide;
but there is more to this spot: the door, escaping

downwards to the street, reminds me that
the world I have come to spurn and fear,
but celebrate in song, is still there, and that
we might some day renew our lost affair.

Caleb Perry Murdock was born in 1950 and lives in Rhode Island. He spent most of his life as a word-processing operator for law firms. He has written poetry since his twenties, but he didn’t lose his chronic writer’s block until his late sixties. He is now writing up a storm to make up for lost time.