The Next Time I Talk to My Friends
I’m not leaving anything out
Not putting anything away
That I haven’t taken out
As part of the same project
When it’s dark inside
We’re sitting down together and turning on the lights quickly like William James
In order to see what the darkness looks like
There are times when we look
At the same things
And see something different
I’m not denying it
To be honest I’m not worried about anything
That’s not happening to my friends
As part of the same project
I’m putting things away
When I’m not leaving anything out
Opening my book and trying to find out
Who I am in the story
And who my friends are
I like to read stories that don’t leave anything out
As long as it’s a story
It doesn’t need to be true
Honestly I’m not worried about anything
That’s happening to my friends in the darkness
When we’re sitting next to each other
We often turn off the lights
To see if there’s something we don’t need to see
Mini-interview with Peter Leight
HFR: Can you share a moment that has shaped you as a writer (or continues to)?
PL: It’s really the experience of writing and working on the writing that is most important to me.
HFR: What are you reading?
PL: The Magician’s Assistant and Memoirs of an Anti-Semite.
HFR: Can you tell us what prompted “The Next Time I Talk to My Friends”?
PL: I have a tendency to keep to myself, and this was a sort of extraction proposal.
HFR: What’s next? What are you working on?
PL: A set of poems entitled “Essays.”
HFR: Take the floor. Be political. Be fanatical. Be anything. What do you want to share?
PL: Maybe we would care for each other if we had the same amount to begin with.
Peter Leight lives in Amherst, Massachusetts. He has previously published poems in Paris Review, AGNI, Antioch Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, New World, and other magazines.
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