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Rich Furman

Play



I would call and ask friends to play. Running out the door, calling to mom just before it shut, going to Michael’s to play. To Greg’s to play. To Matt’s to play. Nothing better in the world, at 3:10 pm allowed to escape enslaving school doors. Never mastered spelling or handwriting, failed the basics, and they would not appreciate a boy’s philosophical ranting too sensitive and lost to dreams. But at play I was expert. How to control a maroon three speed with a yellow banana seat roaring down asphalt alley, avoiding corrugated trash can obstacle course. Locating mandarin or marigold slugs buried in slithering earth. Collecting the one hundredth different bottle cap by railroad tracks of decay. The swing right, shoot left unblockable skyhook, and its swishing sound of nothing but net. But life and lives are old clutches grinding, or dress shirts serviceable, but stale. Over time, we no longer asked each other to play. There were parties with bottles spinning and kisses of gleaming lips. Slow dances awkward in frozen rows of whispering fears. Mall wonderings in endless circles, the mocking shy laughter of girls we wanted to love, and stories invented about their young breasts. A graduation unattended, watched drunk from triangle glass safety of skyscraper above. College and journeys to lands of revolution and daily demise like the slicing of bread. Love when I wanted sex and sex when I wanted love. Jobs found and jobs abandoned into the glory of San Francisco Union Square frenzy. Moments watching the ceiling fan count swirling invitations towards extinction. Now, I call friends, invite them to dinner, a poetry reading, a certain event. But really, all I want is to ask them if they can play, and they don’t laugh, but cry, cry internal pounding mad tears of what we have lost, that never again can be had.
July 23, 2002

​

 

--
Rich Furman, MSW, PhD, is Associate Professor and Director of Social Work and Criminal Justice at the University of Washington, Tacoma. Rich has published over 100 scholarly articles, books, and book chapters. Rich’s main areas of research are social work practice with transnational Latino populations, men at risk and masculinities, and the use of the arts and humanities in social work practice, research and education. He has conducted research, practiced, volunteered or taught throughout Latin America.

His first full-length book of poems, Compañero was published by Main Street Rag Press (2007). He has published over 250 poems in various journals. He has performed his work throughout the United States, as well as in Colombia, Peru, Nicaragua, Mexico, and Guatemala. He recently completed a memoir, Falling South, about his ten months in Central America during the time of the Contra war. He is currently working on a novel and narrative nonfiction essays.

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  • Home
  • About
    • Our Story
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  • Features
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  • Issue 22 Fall 2021
    • Issue #22 Art Fall 2021 >
      • Bonnie Severien Fall 2021
      • Camilla Taylor Fall 2021
      • Guilherme Bergamini Fall 2021
      • Emanuela Iorga Fall 2021
    • Issue #22 Poetry Fall 2021 >
      • Maureen Alsop Fall 2021
      • Annah Browning Fall 2021
      • Romana Iorga Fall 2021
      • Natalie Hampton Fall 2021
      • Sherine Gilmour Fall 2021
      • Adam Day Fall 2021
      • Amanda Auchter Fall 2021
      • Adam Tavel Fall 2021
      • Sara Moore Fall 2021
      • Karen Rigby Fall 2021
      • Daniel Zhang Fall 2021
      • Erika Lutzner Fall 2021
      • Kindall Fredricks Fall 2021
      • Cin Salach Fall 2021
      • Andrew Zawacki Fall 2021
      • Micah Ruelle Fall 2021
      • Rachel Stempel Fall 2021
      • Haley Wooning Fall 2021
      • Rikki Santer Fall 2021
      • Evy Shen Fall 2021
      • Suzanne Frischkorn Fall 2021
      • Danielle Rose Fall 2021
      • Eric Burgoyne Fall 2021
      • John Cullen Fall 2021
      • Maureen Seaton Fall 2021
      • Hannah Stephens Fall 2021
    • Issue #22 Nonfiction Fall 2021 >
      • Kevin Grauke Fall 2021
      • Courtney Justus Fall 2021
      • Amy Nicholson Fall 2021
    • Issue #22 Fiction Fall 2021 >
      • Tina Jenkins Bell Fall 2021
      • David Obuchowski Fall 2021
      • Thomas Misuraca Fall 2021
      • Aiden Baker Fall 2021
      • Jenny Magnus Fall 2021
  • Issue 23 Spring 2022
    • Issue #23 Art Spring 2022 >
      • Jonathan Kvassay Spring 2022
      • Karyna McGlynn Spring 2022
      • Andrea Kowch Spring 2022
      • Layla Garcia-Torres Spring 2022
    • Issue #23 Poetry Spring 2022 >
      • Robin Gow Spring 2022
      • T.D. Walker Spring 2022
      • Jen Schalliol Huang Spring 2022
      • Yvonne Zipter Spring 2022
      • Carrie McGath Spring 2022
      • Lupita Eyde-Tucker Spring 2022
      • Susan L. Leary Spring 2022
      • Kate Sweeney Spring 2022
      • Rita Mookerjee Spring 2022
      • Erin Carlyle Spring 2022
      • Cori Bratty-Rudd Spring 2022
      • Jen Karetnick Spring 2022
      • Meghan Sterling Spring 2022
      • Lorelei Bacht Spring 2022
      • Michael Passafiume Spring 2022
      • Jeannine Hall Gailey Spring 2022
      • Phil Goldstein Spring 2022
      • Michael Mingo Spring 2022
      • Angie Macri Spring 2022
      • Martha Silano Spring 2022
      • Vismai Rao Spring 2022
      • Anna Laura Reeve Spring 2022
      • Jenny Irish Spring 2022
      • Marek Kulig Spring 2022
      • Jami Macarty Spring 2022
      • Sarah A. Rae Spring 2022
      • Brittney Corrigan Spring 2022
      • Callista Buchen Spring 2022
      • Issam Zineh Spring 2022
      • MICHAEL CHANG Spring 2022
      • henry 7. reneau, jr. Spring 2022
      • Leah Umansky Spring 2022
      • Cody Beck Spring 2022
      • Danyal Kim Spring 2022
      • Rachel DeWoskin Spring 2022
    • Issue #23 Fiction Spring 2022 >
      • Melissa Boberg Spring 2022
    • Issue #23 Nonfiction Spring 2022 >
      • Srinaath Perangur Spring 2022
      • Audrey T. Carroll Spring 2022