Monday, October 12, 2015

Jocelyne Dubois: Two Poems




Solitude

The lady upstairs is old & speaks Polish
I visit her once a week
she points to bruises on her leg
from a fall

she shows me pills—seven bottles
I talk simply & slowly to her
she understands my words
I can’t make out
what she says to me sometimes

photo albums in her bookshelf
she takes one out
& shows me
daughters
great grandchildren
great great grandchildren
well groomed smiles

She brings me her phone bill
sixteen calls to Texas
“They say I love you, I love you”
Christmas card from her family
propped up on her kitchen table
unsigned    

*

Skinned

Nurse, nurse, who makes me swallow pills
& calls me names behind my back

my sin, thin
brain, broken

I will stand in silence
thick skin around me

breathe deep
& grateful for not being in her skin

 *

Jocelyne Dubois is a Montreal artist, author and poet. Her novella World of Glass (Quattro Books, 2013) was a finalist for the Quebec Writers' Federation Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction. Her poems and short stories have been featured in a variety of literary journals.  ...  about Jocelyne Dubois  ... about World of Glass


1 comment:

  1. I really enjoyed these honest, direct, and moving poems by Jocelyne Dubois.

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