Saskia Hamilton (1967- 2023) was my teacher when I was a student at Columbia. She was on the faculty at Barnard, and one of the first classes I took was her Poetics, a lecture of about thirty students. A couple years later, I took her Advanced Poetry Writing seminar. Can I start by saying I…
Tag: relationships
For you to Stay
If I could have lobbied the gods for you to stay,I would have sunk to my knees.Asked them to choose any price.Diamonds and gold and dignity forjust one change: all the times I was too tired,too impatient,turn them to kindness. And if their glacial eyes did not seem too shocked, I would add,let me remember to…
Ties that Bind
I’m going to tell you the story Da told me, and he says he got it from his own Da, Bill Verling. I don’t remember him – he died when I was about two – but Da swears up and down that Granda always spoke about what he saw that night in awe. Granda wasn’t…
“leukemia,” “die doktor,” “process & finale”
leukemia blood ate from his body wrapped in radiation. his tongue embrace the nectar that his mouth spills out. a hummingbird hovers above his lips—still nothing new. still the body caves onto itself. still there are little whispers to find the sick dying, & sick are dying. worms detect his eyes; sparrows discover the worms….
What about the Rain?
It was misting again. It felt like it was always misting, making everything constantly damp and unpleasant while weighing the air down. The young woman quietly pulled out a cigarette and lit it, feeling guilty and rebellious at the same time. She knew smoking was bad, but she didn’t care. It gave her an excuse…
Our Father
CW: Medical stuff. Grief: a universal language, and yet when spoken, nobody speaks back. A silence that echoes, and who to hear if one is without faith? Aimless prayers and purple knees, the concrete floor is cold, the silence is colder. Nobody is listening, but I’m not ready to stand up just yet. Odours of…
First Big Night
CW: Today’s story is a work of fiction which deals with intimate partner violence and its aftermath. It is also suggested that one character may be a sex worker. Please skip this piece if you need to. If you’re comfortable sharing it, pass it along. If you or someone you know has questions about, or…
Remnants from the Attic
It had to be a mistake. Ivo scrolled back up the page to give the listing another thorough look-over. It was titled Toystill in box, but Ivo knew it for what it really was. An original 1993 Megazord deluxe set. Hemicro-examined the grainy thumbnail, poring over every pixel of the pristine box. A globule offlashlight…
Mornings
Late to rest, early to rise, she gets bored and her old hips have got nothing to do. She carves a single notch on the baseboard each and every time she dreams of you. Thick-mattressed, four-posters are for lovers. She gave away your bed to the neighbors, and now their dog sleeps atop the covers….
Ways of Saying “And”
I tried to answer my first wifein truth(e)that, yes, she is selfishand that this is good:Less wear, Few wounds, No rind where ought be ‘life.’But she gnashed and wailed,her Protestant iceberg atremble,and I curled back my wordswith the bad faith of the midway lover. We’d matched tattoos—still do, I’d think:Black ink ampersands,near or on our hands.Hers: a…