Valerie Bacharach
Valerie Bacharach is a graduate of Carlow University’s MFA program and a proud member of Carlow University’s Madwomen in the Attic writing workshops. Her book, Last Glimpse, was published by Broadstone Books in August 2024. Her poem “Birthday Portrait, Son,” published by the Ilanot Review, was selected for inclusion in 2023 Best Small Fictions. She has been nominated for three Pushcart Prizes and two Best of the Net.
Upon Catching a Glimpse of a Teenage Boy Who for a Moment Looked Like My Dead Son
As if ash and atoms
rebirthed, as if apparition,
corporeal body, as if
I careen through warped time,
as if daydream, all explanations
exploded, as if my furious thoughts
overflow, gusting clouds obscure,
as if I hurtle between grief and wish,
mind a conundrum, impulse
to believe, as if juxtaposition
of here and gone,
my mouth whispers Kaddish,
as if lament, murmuration
of prayers, a net cast
into ocean’s obsidian depths,
as if precise words become miracle,
as if unending quest,
a rubble of dreams
shuttered,
as if tenuous threads anchor
my body, my unchecked heart,
voluminous with blood,
as if wilderness descends once more.
