An Old Story

By Richard Hoffman b. 1949 Richard Hoffman

A few days after my mother died

the furnace went out, and my father,

who had been sitting in his chair

across from hers since the funeral,

his unshaven chin on his chest,

heaved himself up and went down

the cold gray cellar stairs to see if

he could relight the pilot himself

or would have to call for help.

I know what it must have been like

because I remember him other times

on his back down there, cursing

match after match, god damning

each for burning his fingers, as he

reached through the tiny metal door

as many times as it took. This time

it lit, caught, and roared back to life.

When my father sat up he faced

the washer, the dryer, the empty

laundry basket, the ironing board,

and my mother’s radio above the sink,

her absence so vivid that climbing

the stairs he thought he heard her

behind him, and he turned around.

Source: Emblem (Barrow Street Press, 2011)

Biography

Poet and teacher Richard Hoffman earned a BA in English from Fordham University and an MFA in creative writing from Goddard College. He is the author of the poetry collections Without Paradise: Poems (2002) and Gold Star Road (2007), which was selected by Molly Peacock for the Barrow Street Press Poetry Prize and won the Sheila Motton Award from the New England Poetry Club.

Hoffman is also the author of the memoir Half the House . . .

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