Jacqueline Coleman-Fried
Jacqueline Coleman-Fried is a poet living in Tuckahoe, NY. Her work has appeared in New Verse News, Nixes Mate, Streetlight Magazine, The Orchards Poetry Journal and Consequence. She is currently working on a chapbook about her husband’s death–and how she dealt with the loss.
No
You are no
you are snuffed out
a cold candle how
can you be nowhere
were you scared
you knew yet
you never reached
for me did you feel me
stroking your hair
your eyes closed you
are no your khakis
hang limp in the closet
your whitefish salad laced
with preservatives still
edible in the refrigerator
your tattered orange phone
book waiting for
your fingers
how can these insensate
flimsy things remain
on rolling earth when you
do not
the cat sleeps
on smooth sheets
next to me
no one
can define spirit or hold it
in an hour glass you are
snuffed out, my love—
you are no
No
