A Window in Brattleboro             “I keep thinking I have some news but I don’t.”                                               — SUZANNE KINGSBURY   From a window in Brattleboro my mind wanders to why I’m here on a cold day in May, here in this apartment by the Connecticut, still winding its old and noble way past Wantastiquet, mist on green on green on shadow — I don’t know why I’m here at all, newcomer . . . but listen: we’re young again, a long long time ago, that river’s the Mekong, that faceless brooding green, that’s Laos, just out of sniper range, we’re on the bus, lying on the roof, careening on the Thai side, nothing changed, but for a moment all the whys go dim — no, gone. Tonight some Thai stick, then we’ll swim.     © Michael Fleming Brattleboro, Vermont May 2009