Life isn’t all unsolved murders by the sea, by Casey Jarrin

Life isn’t all unsolved murders by the sea

gaunt detectives drown in another pint
old pains swim inside suits and bones
a savior complex walks into a bar
sits next to a gentle sex addiction
both in search of a wall to punch
immutable truths
to prove.

mom’s eyes swallow horizon
dad sits frozen in his car
little sisters listen
at the door

a scarf washes ashore
a body floats in with the tide
we realize this is how
life comes undone.

meanwhile
wild turkeys cross city streets
necks wiggle in winter fog
uninterested in the price of gas
or whether a stacked Court
this December morning
will decide who dies
and when alive
begins.

Casey Jarrin is a poet, painter, and educator whose writing appears in Irish, UK, and US journals (Banshee, Abridged, Washington Square Review, Belfield Literary Review, Banyan Review, Buzzwords, Grand Journal, Perisphere). She’s received the Verve, York, Goldsmith, and Fingal Poetry Prizes, been on the Bridport shortlist, and performed as a featured poet at Lime Square and the Nuyorican Poets Café. A Jewish-Catholic atheist raised in New York who’s since lived in Dublin and Minneapolis, she received her PhD in modern literature/film, taught at Macalester College for several years, and is founder-director of Live Mind Learning. She’s now completing her debut collection, Untethered. Website: www.caseyjarrin.com

 

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