LITERARY READING: The Poet Hadn’t Gone Anywhere

The narrator is an immigrant who lives in Montreal where he meets a compatriot-poet, from his home country-Iran. They meet several times in the poet’s home and during each visit the poet reads his poems to the narrator. The narrator follows the footsteps of the poet’s emotions and his affection for a woman. The story takes place during a cold winter. The story comes to an end when the narrator finds that the poet refuses to open the door for him. The narrator becomes engaged with the question of presence or absence of the poet at home and decides to come back at a later time. He returns and rings the bell again but there is no answer. The narrator tries one last time and arrives to the poet’s home on their usual meeting time. He rings again, and again stands by the door step. There is no answer, the narrator waits and waits, opens the bottle of wine he has brought, and waits for the poet who is no longer opening the door.