Mark Youssef

Mark Youssef is a physician in the Cincinnati, Ohio area. His poems have appeared in The Worcester Review, Jabberwock Review, Panoply, and the anthology, I Thought I Heard A Cardinal Sing: Ohio’s Appalachian Voices Sheila-Na-Gig Editions). He is an MFA candidate in poetry at Bennington College.

Nearing Meteorology

The storm settled over the city.
Dogs whining, circled into tumbleweeds
on the couch, under the end table.

Lightning broke the sky
like a plunge into icy water.
Thunder roiled low, shaking porcelain,
cracking eggs in the fridge.

Wind arrived like a river—
probing for cavities in the walls,
filling voids.

Remembering for a moment that
air is also a fluid—
I drown with my daughter
sleeping in my arms.

What should I teach her
about the world?