LISTENING It was a night like all the others. Empty of everything save memory. He thought he'd got to the other side of things. But he hadn't. He read a little and listened to the radio. Looked out the window for a while. Then went upstairs. In bed realized he'd left the radio on. But closed his eyes anyway. Inside the deep night, As the house sailed west, he woke up to hear voices murmuring. And froze. Then understood it was only the radio. He got up and went downstairs. He had to pee anyway. A little rain that hadn't been there before was falling outside. The voices on the radio faded and then came back as if from a long way. It wasn't the same station any longer. A man's voice said something about Borodin, and his opera Prince Igor. The woman he said this to agreed, and laughed. Began to tell a little of the story. The man's hand drew back from the switch. Once more he found himself in the presence. of mystery. Rain. Laughter. History. Art. The hegemony of death. He stood listening Now pull up a chair and sit on the floor. One bright day in the middle of the night, Two dead boys got up to fight Back to back they faced each other, Drew their swords and shot each other. A blind man came to watch fair play A mute man came to shout Horray! A deaf policeman heard the noise and Came to stop those two dead boys He lived on the corner in the middle of the black, In a two-story house on a vacant lot: A man with no legs came walking by, and kicked the lawman in his thigh He crashed through a wall without making a so into a dry creek bed and suddenly drowned, The long black hearse came to cart him away. Yesterday, upon the stair,
I met a man who wasn’t there
He wasn’t there again today
I wish, I wish he’d go away… When I came home last night at three
The man was waiting there for me
But when I looked around the hall
I couldn’t see him there at all!
Go away, go away, don’t you come back any more!
Go away, go away, and please don’t slam the door… (slam!) Last night I saw upon the stair
A little man who wasn’t there
He wasn’t there again today
Oh, how I wish he’d go away.. The concept of a one-hit wonder is usually applied to pop-songs, but the same can be said of novelists and poets.  Hughes Mearns’ poem Antigonish, is an example of a one hit wonder, as I can’t find any other poems attributed to him that have survived in the common domain.   This little nursery rhyme like poem apparently had quite an influence on some children in the English speaking world, maybe because of its slightly scary imagery and the fact that children and adults are sometimes afraid of things that don’t exist in the dark.  Antigonish is about the bogeyman who makes the hair on the back of our necks stand up.  David Bowie’s rock song is rumored to have been influenced by this poem and if you listen to the lyrics, there are similarities, whether it is intentional or by coincidence is up for debate.   In the desolate depths of a perilous place the bogeyman lurks, with a snarl on his face. Never dare, never dare to approach his dark lair for he’s waiting . . . just waiting . . . to get you. He skulks in the shadows, relentless and wild in his search for a tender, delectable child. With his steely sharp claws and his slavering jaws oh he’s waiting . . . just waiting . . . to get you.  Many have entered his dreary domain but not even one has been heard from again. They no doubt made a feast for the butchering beast and he’s waiting . . . just waiting . . . to get you. In that sulphurous, sunless and sinister place he’ll crumple your bones in his bogey embrace. Never never go near if you hold your life dear, for oh! . . . what he’ll do . . . when he gets you!