Jaime Zuckerman
Poem for the Nestling that Died in a Blue Soup Bowl
body pumping / like a slow and ugly heart
ragged early feathers / and all that fear
globed eyes and ear holes / that are cathedrals
the tiniest cathedrals / just filigree
and pink nerve endings / I look right in
where the small organ hums / I whisper
I lost my job I loved / a decade disappeared
I don’t know who I am / or what I’m doing
your body pulses / there in your bowl which is
a sky that will actually hold you / and not let go
here : my open palms / I’ll keep you warm
for one more hour / because you won’t eat
I have nothing else / to give
you will die tomorrow / but for now live
live improbably
Jaime Zuckerman is the author of two chapbooks, Letters to Melville (Ghost Proposal, 2018) and Alone in this Together (Dancing Girl Press, 2016) as well as recent or forthcoming poems Diode, Forklift, Ohio, NightBlock, Foundry, Hobart, Vinyl and other journals. She serves as the poetry editor of Redivider, the art director for Sixth Finch, and a senior reader for Ploughshares. She grew up in the woods but now lives and teaches in Boston, MA.
Return to May 2018 Edition
body pumping / like a slow and ugly heart
ragged early feathers / and all that fear
globed eyes and ear holes / that are cathedrals
the tiniest cathedrals / just filigree
and pink nerve endings / I look right in
where the small organ hums / I whisper
I lost my job I loved / a decade disappeared
I don’t know who I am / or what I’m doing
your body pulses / there in your bowl which is
a sky that will actually hold you / and not let go
here : my open palms / I’ll keep you warm
for one more hour / because you won’t eat
I have nothing else / to give
you will die tomorrow / but for now live
live improbably
Jaime Zuckerman is the author of two chapbooks, Letters to Melville (Ghost Proposal, 2018) and Alone in this Together (Dancing Girl Press, 2016) as well as recent or forthcoming poems Diode, Forklift, Ohio, NightBlock, Foundry, Hobart, Vinyl and other journals. She serves as the poetry editor of Redivider, the art director for Sixth Finch, and a senior reader for Ploughshares. She grew up in the woods but now lives and teaches in Boston, MA.
Return to May 2018 Edition