I had a little crick in my neck and she started rubbing my back, hard. I got goosebumps and something popped. That’s when she told me never to face pain head on./ If you don’t invest, you don’t get anything back. You just spend and spend, and what’s the point of that?/ They’ll trade him later in the year when they realize they need a half-decent quarterback./ She’s 94 and found the face of Jesus under her scratch off. It wasn’t worth a dime, never mind the price of the ticket./ I love our kids’ coach. He’s a good guy./ She’ll move up in the office, no doubt, but that job’s a dead end. At some point she’ll realize she has to move on./ We’ve got a buttload of watermelon in this Tupperware. Want some?/ Wait. Is that a turtle?/ He was huge. No offense. Now he’s on Ozempic./ Did she ever call you back? What a jerk./ I have to deal with all the bullshit, but not today./ I forgot to stretch. Now I’m all tensed up./ My mom kept vacuuming even though the house was spotless./ Oh my god. Where’s Natalie?/ When we argue now, we have rules so we know when to stop./ I pulled another muscle, dragging the cooler down myself./ Did you see those orange helicopters spraying mosquito repellent? They were flying so low. I was afraid we were at war./ If the world doesn’t end, I might last another twenty years.
Denise Duhamel’s most recent books of poetry are Pink Lady (Pitt Poetry Series, 2025), Second Story (2021) and Scald (2017). Blowout (2013) was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. She is a distinguished university professor in the MFA program at Florida International University in Miami.