National Poetry Month Day 11: Natalie Shapero

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Finally, Some Concrete Career Advice 

Don’t be an actor. God observes you
violent in a scene and, thinking it is real, mistakenly 
adds you to Hell. This happens all the time. 
It’s like when I traveled 
across eight states in shattering 
pain to curl beside S as she left this Earth, only to later 
have a dream I’d instead stayed home 
eating fruit cups and sewing a patch on my jeans. 
I didn’t know a dream 
could undo a true event, uncement it, 
but it did—from then on, I hadn’t gone, and how 
do I live with myself now, I ask each day—

 

 

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Author photo courtesy of author

Natalie Shapero is the author, most recently, of the poetry collection Popular Longing. More from this author →