THE SENTENCING OF DR. LARRY NASSAR
at the introduction
the one-on-one
semester starter
coffee table conference
my student second semester senior
econ major manicured
tells me that he’s been
slaying
ample female bodies
and having a grand belly laugh
we are [a] similar
color and age and
he correctly assumes
sexual orientation
there is
he assumes again
an understanding between us
about the meaning of the word
slay
my student wants to talk
about conquest
asking nothing
he tips his cap to mine
he wants to see my grail
hear the ways
i talk about my grail
how many grails i have
owned counting
without counting
as they pile up
and are reduced to a verb
which is to say
a wink
which is to say
we flitter
in the comfort of our oneness
in the oneness of our
wounds aggression
in the oneness of our
reducing (so fluent)
all women to plunder
—from Rattle #62, Winter 2018
__________
Daniel Kossow: “I believe that my thoughts are a sense; like seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, and smelling. I have no more say in how my thoughts arise and fall away than I do what passes before my eyes or into my ears. I write poetry because it’s the only way I know how to demarcate just how utterly confusing that is! Poetry allows me to embody my thoughts in sound and image; to watch them grow from random synapse to beauty. And when that works out after all that work, it feels really, really good.”
