September 2021
Bio Note: : I am a writer and teacher who currently serves on the Alaska Writers Guild Board of Directors. In addition to Verse-Virtual, my work has recently been published in Juke Joint ("mono no aware," issue 14, jukejointmag.com) and Sparked (three poems, July 2021, sparkedlitmag.com). My illustrated collection of short fiction, The Birthday Picture: and Other Stories, is now available from Red Sweater Press. The following poem first appeared on episode 94 of the Rattlecast, accessible via YouTube and SoundCloud.
Malacology
There is a slowness
to every movement made
in the wake of heartbreak,
a spiraling ache that
dulls the senses into
believing the body
is nothing more
than a shell-less mantle,
a soft, slick sack of sadness
ripe for extermination.
But study the self long
enough, and survival
appears within reach.
Progress isn’t pretty, but
the turns of tenderness
carve a path.
©2021 Caitlin M. S. Buxbaum
Editor's Note: If this poem(s) moves you please consider writing to the
author (email address above) to tell her or him. You might say what it is about the poem that moves you. Writing to the author is what builds the community at Verse Virtual.
It is very important. -JL