I record my mom singing “A Bushel And A Peck”
and send it to my nieces to play for their boys
who are all under 12, the age they need to be
to visit her in the ICU. My mom has a bandage
on her nose from where the ventilator cut her,
and clear tubes of oxygen in her nostrils. Blue
veins squiggle her forehead as though her youngest
great-grandson has scribbled there. The boys
barely notice and send back their own videos—
Ben, Nick, and Max say, “We love you!”
then their mother pans over to the dog,
“And Ringo does too!” Zach, Brody, and Alex
sing “You Are My Sunshine.” My mom
always hated our cell phones, the way they
distracted us away from her. But now she wants
me to hold my screen so she can see, so she can hear
the boys’ song over and over again, her head
gently bopping back and forth on her pillow.
Denise Duhamel’s most recent book of poetry is Second Story (Pittsburgh, 2021). Her other titles include Scald; 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). A recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, Duhamel teaches in the MFA program at Florida International University in Miami.
Denise Duhamel’s latest book is Second Story. Visit with her and her work at the Miami Book Fair 2021.
Welcome to SWWIM Every Day’s preview coverage of Miami Book Fair (MBF) 2021! The poets whose work you’ll be reading every weekday from October 25 through November 12 are just a few of the many authors from around the world participating in this year’s MBF, the nation’s largest gathering of writers and readers of all ages. They all look forward to sharing their work, thoughts, and ideas both in person and online. Between November 14 and November 21, new poet conversations and readings will be launched and available for free on miamibookfaironline.com (in addition to other content). For more information, visit the website and follow MBF on Instagram and Twitter at @miamibookfair and use the hashtag #miamibookfair2021.
