WHILE HE IS HEALING | IT WOULD BE BEST TO

live like i am lost
infinitesimal sand
quartz, mica, sea glass, shell: fragments
open palmed glister

summoned when
dirty sheets, dusty shelves, unbleached toilet
need tending when
tender voice alarming,
he asks for water

waves scour seabed’s exquisite detritus
stalk afternoon joy
grace my obligations
i envy his pain, his obliteration

H.E. Fisher is pursuing their MFA in Creative Writing at City College of New York. Their work appears or is forthcoming in Yes Poetry, Anti-Heroin Chic, Juke Joint Magazine, Okay Donkey, Pithead Chapel, and The Rumpus, among other publications. They are the 2019 recipient of The Stark Poetry Prize in Memory of Raymond Patterson.

Image by Jaako Kemppainen