I don’t know why I haven’t posted anything by Stephen Dunn before. He’s a wonderful poet. You might think of this if you happen to be at a tedious holiday party:
Don’t Do That
It was bring-your-own if you wanted anything
hard, so I brought Johnnie Walker Red
along with some resentment I’d held in
for a few weeks, which was not helped
by the sight of little nameless things
pierced with toothpicks on the tables,
or by talk that promised to be nothing
if not small. But I’d consented to come,
and I knew in what part of the house
their animals would be sequestered,
whose company I loved. What else can I say, Continue reading “Monday poem”