The Gun by Denise Duhamel


 
 
We return with every bang,
every firework of the heart.
We huddle, the puddle
of blood at our sneakers.
We stoop and crouch
as though we can revive you,
as though each neon slash
from the bodega is a surgeon’s
needle meticulously
stitching you shut.
 
 
 
Denise Duhamel’s most recent book of poetry is Scald (Pittsburgh, 2017). Her other titles include Blowout; Ka-Ching!; Two and Two; Queen for a Day: Selected and New Poems; The Star-Spangled Banner; and Kinky. She and Maureen Seaton have co-authored four collections, the most recent of which is CAPRICE (Collaborations: Collected, Uncollected, and New) (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2015). And she and Julie Marie Wade co-authored The Unrhymables: Collaborations in Prose (Noctuary Press, 2019). She is a Distinguished University Professor in the MFA program at Florida International University in Miami.