photo from LIFE

by Eugene Stevenson

An old LIFE Magazine, December issue, full-page

color photo in a double spread. It was like that: 

misty grey at dusk, colored neon lights in 

Times Square vying for attention.

High up, the hotel name, mounted in a steel grid 

of white bulbs on the roof, invites. Down below, 

rooms with curtains parted, lamps on, as ours was, 

the week you first visited.

It was like that: cold, wet, heavy snow one night. 

On another, you could not sleep. I walked, talked

in a rage of fever as you made up your mind 

whether to leave him.

Minutes after light etched the negative, the sky 

would have turned black, as it did, one year later 

when you turned off the lamp, left a magazine 

open on the table & walked out.

Eugene Stevenson, son of immigrants, father of expatriates, is author of Heart’s Code (Kelsay Books, 2024), & The Population of Dreams (Finishing Line Press, 2022). His poems have appeared in Atlanta Review, Door=Jar Literary Magazine, The Hudson Review, Ink Sweat & Tears, San Antonio Review, Washington Square Review, among others, & have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes. He lives in the mountains of western North Carolina. More at eugenestevenson.com