When he crouched with an eye

to the peephole

hoping for a glimpse

of his neighbor,

who, he was convinced

was beautiful

(“Well, she has a beautiful

voice,” he explained,

“though I’ve yet to actually

see her”)

I couldn’t help

but wonder

whether I saw the captain

of a submarine,

squinting though the waves

for the enemy,

or, rather, an astronomer

wishing a stray comet

might swim by,

so that he could give it his name.

Troy Jollimore

Troy Jollimore, a philosophy professor at California State University, Chico, is the author of Love’s Vision and two poetry collections, At Lake Scugog and Tom Thomson in Purgatory.