Denise Duhamel
Image by Sam Moghadam Khamseh
Denise Duhamel’s most recent books of poetry are Second Story (Pittsburgh, 2021) and Scald (2017). Blowout (2013) was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. She is a distinguished university professor in the MFA program at Florida International University in Miami.
Ask Anything
We knew the end was
coming here. We knew it
and like idiots—like perfect idiots—
we stayed.
--Fanny Choi
Ask any divorcee and she’ll tell you the same.
Ask anyone who’s been fired, let go, outsourced
Ask anyone who’s survived a gunshot wound, an act of terror,
a backhand from their addicted daughter
Ask anyone who’s sat on a therapist’s couch with a denial so fierce
the truth pops up as stomach issues or chronic pain
Ask anyone who’s survived a hurricane, a wildfire, a flood, an earthquake.
Sometimes there’s nowhere to go
until you’ve been robbed of your nest egg
or pushed out of the nest—
and only then do you stumble through the rubble
looking for a new home.
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©2023 West Trade Review
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