Poetry By Deidra Greenleaf Allan

Gerry Dincher CC



I Dream of Where I’ll Bury You

At night, when the phone rings, my hands dive 
      under the blankets to avoid 
      the message clamoring to be told.

At night, to help me get to sleep, I recite numbers: 
      5 rehabs, 8 emergency room visits, 15 detoxes, 
      20 scars and stitches.

Night is when somebody calls to say they’re throwing 
      your belongings out on the street, your wallet’s 
      been found in the bus station men’s room, 

my number was in the backpack you left on the sidewalk
      after the ambulance took you away.
      Fear goblins start their dances 

at night and I believe the worst that can happen has happened. 
      I fill the uncharted spaces of your silence 
      with dark matter—bodies discovered 

lights flashing, whispering neighbors gathered on the street.
      And when you finally call one night to let me know
      you’re okay, all I can manage is We’ll see, we’ll see.




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Deidra Greenleaf Allan has been published in American Poetry Review, Poetry Miscellany, Puerto del Sol, West Branch, and Quartet Journal, among other print and online journals. In 2001 she was selected as Montgomery County (PA) Poet Laureate by Robert Hass. She has received a Leeway Emerging Artist Award and was a finalist for a Pew Fellowship in poetry. One of her poems was selected in 2012 by Musehouse as its Poem of Hope poster.​