{"id":3507,"date":"2015-07-02T00:19:58","date_gmt":"2015-07-02T00:19:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/?p=3507"},"modified":"2015-08-19T00:20:17","modified_gmt":"2015-08-19T00:20:17","slug":"the-dead-hours-of-the-night-john-barrale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/?p=3507","title":{"rendered":"THE DEAD HOURS OF THE NIGHT – John Barrale"},"content":{"rendered":"

I watch the dead from my porch
\nthe way a bored person watches TV.
\nSome drive by in fast cars;
\nthe brief glimpse
\nof their smiles
\nis like walking into a dark room
\nand opening the light.
\n 
\nOthers, usually the ones
\nin slower cars, stop
\nand roll down a window.
\n 
\nThose dead have nondescript faces
\nand round shoulders,
\nthe kind of shoulders
\nthat look like
\nno one has touched them
\nfor a long time.
\n 
\nMost pretend they stopped
\nto ask directions.
\nPointing and gesturing,
\nthey make incoherent sounds
\nin the way that only the dead can.
\n 
\nI\u2019ve come to believe what they really want
\nis my forgiveness,
\nbut being dead
\nthey can\u2019t talk,
\nor, for some reason,
\nare afraid to.
\n 
\nI mumble a few kind words
\nheavy with the weight of nothing.
\n 
\nThey seem to understand.
\n 
\nI don\u2019t know who these dead are,
\nor why they want my forgiveness.
\n 
\nPerhaps they were my past\u2019s schoolyard bullies,
\nor unkind bosses. Maybe that one in the Olds
\nwas that first time
\nwhen I flubbed so badly.
\nIt looks like it could have been a she.
\n 
\nBut she, like all the rest, are unrecognizable.
\nBeing dead seems to do that to you.
\n 
\nI say nothing. What I really want to say
\nis that even the living have their pride.
\nYou shouldn\u2019t have laughed.
\n 
\nAfter a while,
\nshe rolls the window up
\nand drives away.<\/p>\n

 
\n <\/p>\n

\"nn,John Barrale\u2019s poetry has been published in Paterson Literary Review, Red Wheel Barrow (Volumes 1 – 7, Poetalk, NJ Journal of Poets, The Lullwater Review, California Quarterly, Tiger\u2019s Eye Journal, The Aurorean, The William and Mary Review, Narrative Northeast, City LitRag, and Instigatorzine. John\u2019s poetry has also won several awards including Honorable Mention in both the NJ Poet\u2019s Prize and the Tom Howard Contest for Poetry in All Styles and Genres. In June 2012, Shakespeare\u2019s Moths a collection of John\u2019s poems was published by White Chicken Press.<\/p>\n

John is a founding member of the Red Wheel Barrow Poets, a coalition of NJ poets. Along with three other \u201cGang of Four\u201d members, John also hosts a monthly poetry reading series at The William Carlos Williams Center in Rutherford, NJ. In 2012, John joined the staff of \u201cThe Rutherford Red Wheel Barrow\u201d poetry anthologies as one of its two managing editors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I watch the dead from my porch the way a bored person watches TV. Some drive by in fast cars; the brief glimpse of their smiles is like walking into a dark room and opening the light.   Others, usually the ones in slower cars, stop and roll down a window.   Those dead have [&hellip<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3507"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3525,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3507\/revisions\/3525"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}