BOY
Jamison Conforto
When I was a boy
it was just the two of us
under that hot Utah summer sun, blazing high
the smell of rain and warm rabbitbrush
heaven a synonym for him, for afternoon
And when I was a boy
clinging to the fence
watching my best friend run away in real time
smaller and smaller through the wheat
until I couldn't pick him out from the horizon
And when I was a boy
crying in my bed
wishing with all my heart that I had gone with him
disappeared together into the wheat
instead of picking the coward's way of things
I'm no longer a boy
crying for the dead
but I still think of what could have been
if I had traveled through that rabbitbrush
if we had run away together
when we had time
"boy" is a true story from my youth, when I watched my best friend run away. That day has been a landmark event in my past and a keystone of my inspiration for as long as I can remember, so to finally be able to put it into words is a breakthrough for me personally. I like to think the layers of resonance between the stanzas is a breakthrough in the development of my poetic technique as well.
JAMISON CONFORTO is a writer and poet from the Salt Lake Valley. His poetry collection, Antelope Boy, received recognition at the Sigma Tau Delta Centennial Convention and in the Utah Original Writing Competition. You can follow his poem-a-day journey at @the_year_365_in_365 on Instagram.