[Glenn Wright]

Hi, Alex—

I like how the two sonnet stanzas “reflect” each other, with the second stanza presenting the last words of each line in reverse order. It reminds me of James A. Lindon’s poem, “Doppelgänger.”

On first reading, I couldn’t decide which of three ways to read the poem:
1. as a story about a chance encounter with an old lover not seen for many years
2. as a ghost story
3. as a memory triggered by the N’s return to a place meaningful to him and his lover.

I decided it didn’t matter. The focus is on the fragility and unreliability of memory and our inability to recapture the lost past.

A few nits:
1. S1L6 is a bit awkward. How about something like, “So memory could rewrite the tangled plot”?
2. S1L9– “common” suggests not only that she is ordinary-looking, but also unrefined. Is this your intent?
3. S2L5–The meter could be improved by one of these fixes: “Her presence was familiar, yet unknown,” or “Her presence, commonplace and yet unknown,”
4. S2L11–I scan this as tetrameter: (spondee, anapest, iamb, anapest). You can fix it by changing “neither” to “neither one.” (spondee, anapest, iamb, iamb, iamb).

Enjoyed it!

Glenn