Poem of the Week: Carly Sachs

Maine

Where does memory go?

…………Our windows looking out on the bay,

my wet clothes hanging on the antlers

…………of a deer someone else killed,

but Isabelle remembers the trigger,

…………the blood—

The lobster boats, early morning,

…………the buoys marking their traps.

If only it was as easy to find

…………where the hurt sleeps, our secrets,

or our anchors, our cabin on the coast,

…………the mind, a landmine;

my friend’s brother who forced him down,

…………or my own version of the story.

The fog rolls in and behind it

…………the lobster men will come to retrieve

what has been trapped.

-Carly Sachs

Used by permission.

Carly Sachs is a writer, yoga teacher, and bartender who lives and works in New York City. She is the author of the steam sequence (WWPH, 2006) and the editor of the anthology the why and later (Deep Cleveland Press, 2007). For more information, please visit her website: thewhyandlater.com

Sachs appeared on the panel From Survivor to Thriver: Write Yourself during Split This Rock Poetry Festival: Poems of Provocation & Witness 2010.

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