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.