Denise Duhamel

Summer 2023 | Poetry

Yin

On June 18th, my sister brushed my mother’s teeth

and held a pink basin to her chin to spit.

On June 30th, my mother told me her bangs

scraped her forehead. I took bobby pins

from my hair to pin hers back.

On July 2nd, my mom puckered up

so I slipped off my mask

and kissed her right on the lips.

Denise Duhamel’s most recent books of poetry are Second Story (Pittsburgh, 2021) and Scald (2017). Blowout (2013) was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. A recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, she is a distinguished university professor in the MFA program at Florida International University in Miami.

Denise Duhamel has been recently blown away by the HBO series White Lotus (especially the performance by Jennifer Coolidge, a classmate of hers back in the day at Emerson College), the book Dianne Suess's frank: sonnets, and the film Good Luck to You, Leo Grande.

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