05 Jul I’m Not Writing Because I’m Finally in Love by Sasha Debevec-McKenney
in other ways — jogging very early
in the morning, all this dental work
in quick succession, my numb mouth,
wet drool, I try to make life hurt again,
shoes too tight, thighs rubbing together,
plucking thin hairs off my bent knees,
some days I eat vegetarian while
the rotisserie chicken in my fridge begs
to be torn apart. I stop at yellow lights now.
Whatever it takes to increase production.
As I sit idling in front of a passing train,
ten, fifteen, twenty minutes, the cars
behind me reversing, turning back —
but I’m in love and I don’t have anything else
to do. I know the sad train ends.
About the Poet
Sasha Debevec-McKenney is the author of the poetry collection Joy Is My Middle Name (W.W. Norton, 2025), winner of the 2026 Dylan Thomas Prize. She received her MFA from New York University. She was the 2020–2021 Jay C. and Ruth Halls Poetry Fellow at the University of Wisconsin, and a 2023-2025 Creative Writing Fellow at Emory University. Her poems have appeared in places like The New Yorker, The Yale Review, The Drift, and Granta.
In 2021, Sasha edited the soft-cover print anthology That’s So Me: Self-ish Mix for the Buffalo-based online literary magazine Peach Mag.
She was born in Hartford, Connecticut, and is currently an Assistant Professor of Writing at Grand Valley State University.
Related Event
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- On Saturday, July 18 at 7:30 p.m., Sasha Debevec-McKenney will join poet Mary Ruefle as featured performers at a Just Buffalo Literary Center Silo City Reading Series event also featuring a musical performance by guitarist William Tyler, and an installation by visual artist Julia Dzwonkoski.Silo City Reading Series events take place in Marine A grain elevator, behind Duende at Silo City, 85 Silo City Row. Doors open at 7 p.m., and the events begin at 7:30 p.m. Books by featured poets in the series will be available for purchase by Buffalo-based bookseller Fitz Books.
The Poem of the Week feature is curated by literary legacy awardee R.D. Pohl.