Mark DuCharme
Other poems from Mark DuCharme’s sequence Complicated Grief have appeared in BlazeVOX, Blazing Stadium, First Literary Review- East, Moss Trill and New American Writing. He is the author, most recently, of Here, Which Is Also a Place, published in 2022 by Unlikely Books, and Scorpion Letters, also from 2022 and published by Ethel. Other recent publications include his work of poet’s theater, We, the Monstrous: Script for an Unrealizable Film, published by The Operating System. He lives in Boulder, Colorado, USA. Mark recommends the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Somehow, it went unrehearsed
For a minimum introductory pillow— the wind
On fire like one’s eyes, or the next
Great theme that will soon become apparent
Listen, everyone has a voice, a voice that carries what you mean & what you do not think you meant & what you did not think you meant to do but did anyway. A voice that follows in the night. That deflects & is deflected by us/you.
We have ceased to be
Ourselves
We go on being beings
Not selves or wholes
Wholes with holes in them