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Don’t Leave a Good Time Looking for a Good Time
Michael Bazzett (bio)
is advice I received from a colleaguewith an incongruous ponytailwho once gave his students a testwith only one problem: Define Mathematics.He looked wistful as he relayedtheir consternation and befuddlementover a bowl of forlorn noodlesin the school cafeteria. When askedhow he’d respond, he shruggedand said, “The search for patterns.”“That’s nice,” I said, then repeatedthe phrase, “The search for patterns.”The admonishment to not leavea good time looking for a good timeis also symmetrical, and thus hintsat an endless unfolding patternof wisely choosing stasis to conservewhat little happiness we encounter,yet also begs the question of howwe might parse the nuance of timesthat are good and those merely goodenough? This advice arrived not [End Page 1]in the cafeteria, but over a littlewhisky during an anecdote in whichhe’d reached beneath his girlfriend’sporch to pluck up the pink tailof what he’d thought was a babysnake yet was in reality a possumswinging like a lantern in his grip.“They have yellow needly teeth.They smell like they’re inside out,”he said, “They are not a good time.And if I’d just stayed where I was,I would not have been clutchingthis hissing menace, which I flunggently into the kudzu.” “Which iswhen I knew,” interrupted his then-girlfriend, now-wife, “That he wasthe one.” As she spoke, he sippedhis drink, sat back, and played dead. [End Page 2]
Michael Bazzett
Michael Bazzett is the author of four books of poetry, most recently The Echo Chamber (Milkweed Editions 2021). His translation of the selected poems of Humberto Ak’abal, If Today Were Tomorrow, is forthcoming from Milkweed in 2024.
期刊介绍：
Having never missed an issue in 115 years, the Sewanee Review is the oldest continuously published literary quarterly in the country. Begun in 1892 at the University of the South, it has stood as guardian and steward for the enduring voices of American, British, and Irish literature. Published quarterly, the Review is unique in the field of letters for its rich tradition of literary excellence in general nonfiction, poetry, and fiction, and for its dedication to unvarnished no-nonsense literary criticism. Each volume is a mix of short reviews, omnibus reviews, memoirs, essays in reminiscence and criticism, poetry, and fiction.
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