Sunday, July 9, 2023 “The Second O of Sorrow” by Sean Thomas Dougherty
transistor radios, the eight-tracks my father blared
driving from town to town across Ohio
selling things, the music where we danced
just to keep alive. I now understand I was not
supposed to leave so soon, half a century
a kind of boulder that I’ve pushed up the hill
& now for a moment, like Sisyphus
I watch it roll.
I walk through the snow.
I breathe the dirty East Side wind
pushing past the Russian church, the scent
of fish & freighters & the refinery
filling the hole in my chest—how many years
have piled since I last stumbled out onto the ice
& sat down to die.
Only to look up at the geometry
of sky—& stood
to face whoever might need me—
About the Poet
Sean Thomas Dougherty’s twenty books include “The Dead are Everywhere Telling Us Things,” winner of the 2021 Jacar Press Full Length Book Prize selected by Nickole Brown and Jessica Jacobs, and “Death Prefers the Minor Keys” (BOA Editions 2023). His book “The Second O of Sorrow” (BOA Editions, 2018) in which this poem appears received both the Paterson Poetry Prize, and the Housatonic Book Award. He teaches writing part-time for Western Connecticut State University’s Master of Fine Arts Program and works as a Med Tech and caregiver for people recovering from traumatic brain injuries in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Related Event
- Sean Thomas Dougherty will join poet Ana Božičević, along with a musical performance by Wild Pink, and an art installation by Mizin Shin at the next Just Buffalo Literary Center Silo City Reading Series event from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 22 at Silo City (Marine A), 85 Silo City Row in Buffalo. Doors at 7:00 p.m. Reading begins at 7:30 p.m. Books of the featured poets are available for purchase from Fitz Books online and at the event.
The Poem of the Week feature is curated by literary legacy awardee R.D. Pohl.