by Barry Wallenstein
Passing by a mirror,
he pays no attention
and gazes in the other direction.
He pushes forward without looking back.
It’s enough to know it’s there he thinks;
placing one small thought behind another,
he banishes envy, spite, rancor
and courts a breeze on its way
across a field of heather.
Well below the field,
beyond an opening in the fence,
the stream is damned,
the water is pooled
cold and clear enough
to see down to the pebbles.
He breaks the surface
and counts the stones.
Barry Wallenstein is the author of 13 collections of poetry, the most recent being Playing in Overtime (Ridgeway Press Poetry Series, 2025) and Odd Men Out (and In) – (Xanadu Press, 2025). He has made 12 recordings of his poetry with jazz, the most recent being Lisbon Sunset (2018) and Lisbon Sunrise (2022). Barry is Emeritus Professor of Literature and Creative Writing at CUNY, editor at American Book Review and advisory editor for BigCityLit.