1725 Jefferson Park Avenue — Clock Counting

AUTHOR NARRATION

Hear the poem.

Read by the author in the original English.

1725 Jefferson Park AvenueEnglish narration

THE ADDRESS

Return to the house.

The exact address makes this one of the collection’s most directly recoverable places.

FIVE FRAMES FROM A FOUND ALBUM

Wild Sides, Not Ignored

An old Facebook album of mine gives us five glimpses of the house and its surroundings, apparently the morning after a memorable night; the name of the album was “Ode á la Morning After.” Choose a photograph in the album to look more closely. Mouse over the photo to see the true original (un-cartoonified) photo.

THE FOUND ALBUM

Choose a picture from the album

Illustrated Facebook album from March 25, 2011. Names are redacted; five photos can be selected.

A CLOSER LOOK01 / 05

Wooden floorboards, tangled ribbons, and a cardboard tube.

The floorboards

THE PROPERTY

The building the poem remembers — and the one there now.

A 2014 property listing preserves the low brick apartment building associated with the poem. Today, a much larger building occupies the address, but brickwork and a long street-facing facade still visually connect the two eras.

Former low brick apartment building at 1725 Jefferson Park Avenue. — 01
**Then: the former building**
A low, two-story brick building partly screened by trees and shrubs.

Current apartment building at 1725 Jefferson Park Avenue. — 02
**Now: the new building**
A five-story building with a central glass stairwell and the address above the entrance.

A HISTORY PRESERVED IN EMAIL

Finding 1725.

The surviving messages trace how I.S. and I searched for an apartment for our fourth year of college, moved in together, assembled a household, and—one year later—prepared the transition to my next roommate.

DEC. 2009

A.F. · I.S. · a landlord

Subject: Your Property

The search begins elsewhere

Before Jefferson Park Avenue, an early lead pointed toward a house on Preston. I forwarded the exchange to I.S. while we were still deciding where to live the following year.

“most of our party are very interested in the house”

“the next step … in living in that house next year”

MAR.–APR. 2010

I.S. · property managers · A.F.

Subject: apartments for 2010–2011

I.S. searches for us both

I.S. wrote to Oxford Hill Apartments and then Hasbrouck Realty. The second lead matters most: R.B. of Hasbrouck would become the landlord associated with 1725 JPA.

“My friends and I are still looking for a place to live for this upcoming 2010–2011 school year.”

AUG. 1–2, 2010

A.F. · I.S.

Subject: R.B., furniture, and moving in

A household takes shape

An urgent exchange about R.B. and delayed paperwork turns almost immediately into ordinary domestic planning about what each of us will bring to the apartment.

“I may have a coffee table, but I def have a microwave, and of course stuff for my room.”

“We can DEF find one on CL.”

JUNE–JULY 2011

A.F. · I.S. · N.B. · R.B.

Subject: lease, furniture, and move-in

One roommate replaces another

N.B. agreed to take the room. The thread worked through the Hasbrouck lease, the $830 total rent—$415 each—and the outgoing roommate’s furniture. My reply clarified that I.S. would leave earlier, so N.B. could move in whenever he wished.

“Isn’t I.S. going to be there through the 5th?”

Excerpts from emails preserved from 2009–11. Names are replaced with initials; spelling and capitalization are otherwise preserved in quotations. The brief surrounding context is reconstructed from the message threads.

A NOTE THAT MAKES NO SENSE UNTIL IT DOES

Hear the UVA cheer.

The brief book note—“wahoowa!”—can become a living piece of campus culture rather than a footnote readers have to decode.

Official video: UVA Today — the chant at the end of “The Good Old Song”

READER DISCUSSION

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1725 JeffersonPark Avenue