I remember when my father turned 40.

Really, I just have an image of my mom decorating the house,

which could have been for the time

he was promoted to lieutenant,

but it’s probably all around the same time.

I wonder if back then his mind too

started blurring the lines between

one memory and another.

I wonder if he too

felt the decades stacked upon each other

just like the layers of the cake –

back then I remembered every year distinctly,

now it’s all become childhood,

and suddenly I’m hoping and fearing

I’m somewhere in the middle

rather than the second half.

Oh, how decadent would that be.

I’m old enough where I’ve been

working in the same place long enough

that I can say, officially, there’s a road I’ve driven

down more than any other in this world.

Back and forth every day down the quiet

and cavernous Whiskey Road

bending like a river through a bronze and yellow

autumn soon to exhale the last drops of summer

before it takes a deep breath of cold blue air

and holds it for as long as it can.

Back and forth every day for the last

however many years

where some mornings, some afternoons,

I think I see myself,

sometimes younger, sometimes much older,

on the other side of the road driving back.

And we look at each other for that brief moment

at the bend in the road.

I remember once asking my dad

what he liked most about being a police officer

and he told me about the quiet winter night shifts

when it had snowed

and he’d patrol the empty sleeping town where all there was

was his tire tracks in the unplowed roads that he would keep

following and driving through

however many times

until sunrise.

Born and raised in Westhampton Beach, Long Island, Corydon Doyle has been a writer all his life.  In 2011 he self-published a book of poetry: Columnated Ruins, and in 2012 he collaborated with friend and illustrator Jeff Karl and self-published a children’s book Daydreams and Nightdreams, which earned a Gold Medal Moonbeam Award.  He studied English Literature and Education at SUNY Fredonia and earned his Ph.D. in Literacy Studies from Hofstra University.  Currently, he teaches English at Mount Sinai High School and lives with his wife, two sons, and dog Luna in Center Moriches.