On cause & effect

by Perry Levitch

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I have to stop and think about
how sound works to remember
whether thunder or lightning
bellwethers the other. My mother
misgenders me while I dream
my mother misgenders me.
I google how to set google
calendar events as recurring
and my boss emails me try not
to be amazed, links an identical
tutorial. Employees must request
bereavement leave within a week
of the loss. My grandmother died
two years ago, while we weren’t
allowed to visit the hospital
after we hadn’t been allowed
to visit where she lived. I had
shaved my head before I last
saw her. She eyed my scalp
and said Well does it hurt?
and I said No and she said It
doesn’t hurt you and then later
it did. An employee must request
bereavement leave within
a week of the loss. Two years
late we gather to make our grief
a proper lozenge, pass it around
mouth to mouth with small talk.
Crash, then, later, a filament
laces things. Face on
the back of my head.

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Perry Levitch's poems have appeared in pigeon pages, the Rappahannock Review, and the Columbia Review, among others. They are a Pushcart Prize nominee and a former Poetry Editor of Washington Square Review. They received their MFA from New York University.