J.P. White
See You Tomorrow
En route to Columbia I pass this blind man
without legs who crouches on a wooden cart
with silver wheels that could be a river boat
for how nimble his cart rides the rapids
of foot traffic and I glance
into his cup where the tireless jawbones hold court
on the sundering rush at 94th & Broadway.
Sometimes he and I exchange a word,
but mostly I rattle his cup
and push on past professors, nuns, policemen,
incandescent youth and bewildered age,
then I veer to Absolute Bagels
and this cream cheese concoction
spiked with raisins and walnuts that help battle any headwind.
Just knowing I carry this delight,
makes me believe the world’s problems could be softened
by the Chinese family who are the masters
of their bagel craft and always offer the same message
before I leave, See you tomorrow,
and so that is what I tell the man on the wooden cart
and he nods like we have made an agreement
that contains the great and hidden things Jeremiah will
receive if only he will call out to God from prison.
So much of what goes on here,
like trying to hold onto light once glimpsed
at the bottom of a river tumbling into a lawless valley
without bridges where our intrepid family lives one day to the morrow.
J.P. White is the author of the poetry collections The Sleeper at the Party (Defined Providence Press, 2001), The Salt Hour (The University of Illinois Press, 2001), The Pomegranate Tree Speaks from the Dictator’s Garden, (Holy Cow Press, 1988), and In Pursuit of Wings (Panache Books, 1978). His essays, articles, fiction, reviews, interviews and poetry have appeared in The Nation, The New Republic, The New York Times Book Review, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, The Gettysburg Review, American Poetry Review, Sewanee Review, Shenandoah, Prairie Schooner, and many other journals and anthologies. He holds a BA from New College (1973), an MA from Colorado State University (1977), and an MFA from Vermont College (1990). He lives on Lake Minnetonka near Minneapolis.
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