in memory of Stephanie Pinson
There is a permanent sadness
in every small departure,
every door returned to its jamb,
that makes things more fertile
like an echo that doesn't resolve
but resonates faintly
on beyond fading.
At the flea market
the son of a man who wrecks homes
has salvaged from rubble
a stained glass window
with a small panel missing.
Alan Nadel, William T. Bryan Chair in American Literature and Culture at the University of Kentucky, is the author of many books on post-World War II American culture and media, including Containment Culture, The Theatre of August Wilson, and, most recently, Demographic Angst: Cultural Narratives and American Films of the 1950s. His poetry has appeared in several journals, including: Georgia Review, New England Review, Partisan Review, Paris Review, and Shenandoah.