You've Been Gone a Month by Bernadette Ulsamer
He called me in the morning, I was on Bleecker St. at brunch.
He said you passed during the night, peacefully.
I sobbed in the restaurant’s bathroom,
then walked the streets as my heels blistered.
In Pittsburgh I’m wearing your zebra print ankle-strap
stilettos at that club where we drank
double vodkas and Thriller-danced to an Eminem song.
Your husband gave the shoes to me after sorting
out your clothes for donations. You know
I wear a size eight, these are nines, the straps
keep me in place as I wobble the bar’s length.
Bernadette Ulsamer earned an MFA from Carlow University. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in The Main Street Rag, Cossack Literary Journal, Roar Magazine, The Broken Plate, and Along These Rivers. Her poem "ICU, Holy Thursday" was long-listed for the International Fish Poetry Prize 2013.
He called me in the morning, I was on Bleecker St. at brunch.
He said you passed during the night, peacefully.
I sobbed in the restaurant’s bathroom,
then walked the streets as my heels blistered.
In Pittsburgh I’m wearing your zebra print ankle-strap
stilettos at that club where we drank
double vodkas and Thriller-danced to an Eminem song.
Your husband gave the shoes to me after sorting
out your clothes for donations. You know
I wear a size eight, these are nines, the straps
keep me in place as I wobble the bar’s length.
Bernadette Ulsamer earned an MFA from Carlow University. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in The Main Street Rag, Cossack Literary Journal, Roar Magazine, The Broken Plate, and Along These Rivers. Her poem "ICU, Holy Thursday" was long-listed for the International Fish Poetry Prize 2013.
