Poetry by Derek Thomas Dew

Toastal CC




The Measure of Exit


Suddenly there is a deep inhalation, and we’re caught in it,

brought out from under the sagging, from puny brine flake,

and we’re going all the way, pulled beyond the porchlight, 

beyond gray city crag as hovers, beyond wasted time, going far 

weightless until our kind are told, without any basis, 

to keep moving, but not stopping there, ourselves inhaling now, 

because when people like us make room for themselves 

it demands liberating into flutter surfaces those that came before, 

those that fell into first light, saw the day, and realized too late that the self, 

in its sum apart, in its clear thundering mile high arch, is composed

only in the passing, only in the moment one leaves a place untouched.

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Derek Thomas Dew (he/she/they) is a neurodivergent, non-binary poet currently living in New York City and teaching in New Jersey. Derek’s debut poetry collection “Riddle Field” received the 2019 Test Site Poetry Prize from the Black Mountain Institute/University of Nevada. Derek’s poems have been published widely.



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