Pearl River Community College's award winning literary magazine

Special Edition—Spring-Summer 1998

Poetry Section

Joshua Cameron Cothen

Looking Back
 

If we all change
Should we all look back on the changes?
Should we look back
at all the things we did,
at all the ways we acted,
at all the hearts we have broken
at the times we hurt the ones we love
at all the promises unfulfilled?
Should we look back at all?
 

Boulevard of Broken Dreams
 

I stare at that picture every day when I wake up.
I stare at that picture before I slumber.
I don't understand why I do.
It makes me think when I read the name,
"Boulevard of Broken Dreams,"
I feel as though I have been up and down that road.
I feel as though I have lived on that street,
slept in its alley ways,
and been swept down its gutters.
But there was always a street light on,
Right next to that diner on the corner.
Where people just like me
would get a break from the street,
and see a glimpse of hopefulness, of happiness,
and of the dreams that could come true.
I would sit in the diner
and stare out the window,
looking down that street.
Then I would think,
Soon the diner will close
and I would be left to choose;
Go out the front door,
and stay in the state of life I'm in;
Or sneak out the back door
to the next street,
Where there are many doors
And alley ways I have never been in before.
It's so amazing that just one street apart
the two streets are two totally different worlds.
Now all I have to do is to get up,
and decide which way I should go.
Which door I should choose.
Which door should I choose?
Which door will I choose?