Poetry by Jeanann Verlee

H A R B O R


drunk / ruth / wine / sick / quickening / rage / lost & loss / blood / womb / ova / ova / rupture / spill / cock /
wreck / waltz / wedding shoes / grime / first husband’s silence  / second husband’s silence  / silent & their
silence  /  throat   /  burn in the throat   /  burn in the throat after the shriek  /   Xanax  /  anti-depressant  /
anti-psychotic  /  pill & its pills   /  bridge  /  knife  /  throat  / knife-to-throat  /  bar fight  / Jack  /  Cuervo  /
cheapest-you’ve-got / bound wrists / finger and its fingers / chokehold / upturned sofa / shock /  no and its
nos   /  cock & cock & cock & cock   /  welts   /  kicked dog   /  kicked dog & her whimper  /  morning after  /
still-alive morning after / flashback’s flashback / boy in the cave / boy on the flatbed  / boy in the mines  /
boy in the briar / boy in the club / boy on the train /  boy under the docks / boy in the dark  / boy made of
the dark   / boys who made it go dark /  gravel-tooth  / moon  / aftershock  /  divorce & divorces / friend’s
couch / friend’s floor / friend’s living room parsed off by a sheet / next apartment / next / next & the next
​/ shotgun / 9mm / .22 / Bowie / switch / razor / river / pillow & its blood / ambulance / psych ward / white
coat / sick / sick / slap  / knuckle  / bruise & its bruise  / mother who left  / mother who returns / mother’s
backhand  /  mother’s rum  /  mother’s vomit  / mother’s fridge stocked with Budweiser  /  mother’s sick /
mother’s survivals / mother’s drunk / years of drunk / years of drunks / body that harbors the sick / body
that harbors the survivals / survivals that etch the cells  / cells that cycle the sick  / cycle that harbors the
drunk / ruth / wine / sick / quickening / rage /

​


Sober


Muscle your way through 40 days.
Make a dress of limes, a bath of seltzer.

Crown yourself Queen of Sweat
& Dry Mouth. Forgive yourself

the crave, the petulance, the unholy
newness of rising early.

Forgive your thumbs their twitch,
your restless knees.

Make a lover of patience & ennui.
Fuck something sweet & break it in two.

Call it endurance. Tell yourself
                                                 you won.

​

​
In Lieu of a Poem, the Author Writes the Message She Would Put into a Bottle If She Had Access to
Both a Bottle and the Sea


Get free.

​

Bio: Jeanann Verlee is a 2017 NEA Poetry Fellow and the author of two books, Said the Manic to the Muse and Racing Hummingbirds, which was awarded a silver medal in the Independent Publisher Awards. Her third book, prey, was first runner-up for the 2016 Benjamin Saltman Poetry Award and will be published by Black Lawrence Press in 2018. She is a recipient of the Third Coast Poetry Prize and the Sandy Crimmins National Prize, and her work appears in Adroit, BOAAT, Rattle, and BuzzFeed Reader, among others. Verlee collects tattoos and kisses Rottweilers. She believes in you. Find her at jeanannverlee.com.

​Photo credit: Angelys Ocana

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