Tuesday, September 24, 2024

Tuesday poem #599 : Katie Ebbitt : from Fecund

 

IV

And she 
would say 

that we 

couldn’t say 

fatigued

that the
environment 

was too urgent 

for feeling

she said 
to assume anything

as a given

was a bad move

she told 
us all 

about 

violent 

words 

and 
the violence 

that was 

summoned 

when they 

were said

she praised us 
for the right 

words

the words
that were 

very clear

and we 
talked about 

language

so that 
it matters 

to us


but also
made it hard 
to think of anything 

as true

everything was dialectic

a gray
so much gray

that the gray

became opaqueness 

and we 
occasionally 

found ourselves

too tired
to remember 

how to speak



V

To release 
life into

the same

realm as

decision

to be a real
person



 

 

Katie Ebbitt is a poet/psychotherapist living in NYC. She is the author of the chapbooks ANOTHER LIFE (Counterpath, 2016), Para Ana (Inpatient, 2019), Air Sign (Creative Writing Department, 2024) and HYSTERICAL PREGNANCY (above/ground press, 2024). Fecund, her first full-length book, is currently available for preorder through the Michigan based press, Keith LLC.

the Tuesday poem is curated by rob mclennan

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