Memory Lane

During the 80s I performed with some sistahpoetfriends in a group called Voices in the Wind.  A photographer with our local paper snapped this but I am on a stage in an intimate theatre setting with 6 other poets dressed in black and a guest poet, Amelia Pegram. 

And this photo was also taken in the early 80s with my partner in our first apartment.  One of the very few pieces of furniture we had was the lamp behind us. We later added a plant, so all the pictures during this time are either in front of the lamp or the lamp and plant.  The plant died but we still have the lamp.

He first encountered me at a heritage festival where many years later he recounted the incident for me and I remembered that I very distinctly blew him off. 

Not knowing that he was the boy I blew off, I encountered him at the campus library where I remembered he "stalked" me. (He takes issue with this description) but I swear, every time I looked up he was passing the aisle I was browsing or on the other side of the shelf.  I use to take refuge to study in the African American Reading Room at the library which was typically very empty and quiet.  One day he comes in and to entertain myself I reciprocate in the conversation he insist on having (he takes issue with my take on this as well).  After sizing him up as smart but oh so square when he asked me for my phone number I intended on changing the last number (always easier to remember in case they ask again).  But like the voodoo spell he caste the correct telephone number came out of my mouth.  Future telephone conversations solidified his squareness but he was smart and we could talk politics and he loved my poetry and literary interests so he became a forum for me to bounce off of.  But I never went out with him, was already involved and had my oldest son.  I went on to marry someone else, (had confessed to him, my best friend, and my sister that I knew this was for all the wrong reasons).  He tried to talk me out of it, but didn't. He moved to Birmingham, AL. I went through with the marriage, I divorced, he moved back to Louisville, but after such a hypocritical event of knowingly marrying the wrong person in church, before God, family and everyone else, I talked big smack about not getting weighed down...after a year or so, though he was the only man that made the cut and I enjoyed most of the time because after much partying, he had real conversation and was the most intriguing of any man I had ever known and pretty much has remained so to this day, (except for one other, but that too would have been disastrous if I had pursued it).  We've been together for 20 years and through all the ups and downs have become best friends in love. My only real bone of contention is that I think his thinking suffers sometimes from male hegemony when it comes to women's issues inspite of my best efforts.