Anti-Heroin Chic
  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Music
  • Art
  • Comedy
  • About Our Contributors
  • Masthead
  • Issues
  • About our contributors - 2019
  • About Our Contributors - 2020
  • About Our Contributors - 2021
  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Music
  • Art
  • Comedy
  • About Our Contributors
  • Masthead
  • Issues
  • About our contributors - 2019
  • About Our Contributors - 2020
  • About Our Contributors - 2021
Search by typing & pressing enter

YOUR CART

​

9/27/2020

Poetry by FJ Doucet

Picture
                         ​Chiara Cremaschi CC




​Ode to My Mother's Overdose


can i show you night's shape without exposing the black root 
of blame? no other way to tell this story. the child

twisted by the woman's shame. her stillness: grotesque,
open-mouthed on the living room sofa. no way, no

mama! get up! i’ll be good now. please. my baby-self bargaining 
with God. just how long did I stand there shaking 

her arms? terror competed with awe in her loveliness. the poster-girl
for heroin-chic modelling death. was an hour enough 

that she might at last wake? gasping, she sat up. but after 
thirty years, i still hear myself screaming through the throws

of our same re-birth in terror. that night 
was the last of my childhood. ever since, I think 

I've always known what Leonard Cohen meant 
when he sang the holy dove. and still

the cry that splits the starless night above--
the cold and then the broken hallelujah.





In the Event

I read about the maloxone kit. I
read about it, I thought--I need
to call Mum.        I need

to warn her. I need--
I will tell her 
in the event of an overdose. Get this 

thing, the kit. Open the box, 
the saving of your life. Inject grace

and breath, until such time 
as you can put the needle down 
for good. I need 

to call her. But what’s this

busy signal, the abrupt closure/
click of the line. The number

you have dialed has not been assigned.


Picture
FJ Doucet's poetry has most recently been published in Andromeda Spaceways Magazine, Beliveau Review, Yolk, Martin Lake Journal, and Literary Mama, while her work in Prometheus Dreaming magazine was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her prose appears in the Retellings of the Inland Seas anthology from Candlemark and Gleam press, with more fiction forthcoming through Endless Ink Publishing House. She is a member of The Wild Nellies women's creative collective and the newest president of the Brooklin Poetry Society, just outside of Toronto, Canada. 


Comments are closed.

    Author

    Write something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview.

    Archives

    December 2024
    November 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    March 2023
    December 2022
    October 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    August 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.