Esther Lin: Pick of the Week [ed. Terence Winch]

 

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Habit

 

My husband’s favorite is to suffer.

I too have taken this up;

 

I pant for what I can’t have.

The world is full of trite regard.

 

Those who love lightly as houseflies

do so because they expect calamity,

 

and those who love passionately

demand a righting of ancient wrongs.

 

My mother did both.

Her voice high and keen

 

from the bed she routinely took ill.

I brought her pills; she shared them

 

with me and I went off into my own life,

fearing and trusting everyone.

 

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Esther Lin was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and lived in the United States as an undocumented immigrant for 21 years. She is the author of Cold Thief Place, winner of the 2023 Alice James Award, co-editor of Here to Stay: Poetry and Prose from the Undocumented Diaspora (HarperCollins, 2024), and author of The Ghost Wife, winner of the 2017 Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowship. She was a Writing Fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, and a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. Her work won a Pushcart Prize in 2024, and was featured in the Best of the Net 2023 anthology and Best New Poets 2022. Currently she is a critic at large for Poetry Northwest. She lives in Seattle, Washington.

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                                                   Street art, possibly by Brazilian artist Derlon Almeida.
   

Comments

[Cindy Hochman]

WOW. This poem really speaks to me. The first couplet drew me right in. I love the sparse yet powerful language employed throughout. Congrats, Esther, and thank you, Terence, for once again picking a wonderful poem.

[Clarinda Harriss]

It speaks to me ! Thanx you folks!

[lally]

another brilliant poem and pick esther and terence, fabulous is right

[Grace Cavalieri]

OH I LOVE THIS POEM: the complexity and raw authentic self. This is rare to find even among the most seasoned poets.

[Terence Winch]

Thanks for the comment, Cindy.

[Terence Winch]

Michael: thanks for the comment.

[Susan Campbell]

Great poem. I love these wise paradoxes. Excellent image!

[Gerald Fleming]

Terrific poem, the dualities (true-alities!), the great last line. Thank you!

[Eileen Reich]

I love this poem and the artwork.

[David Beaudouin]

To pick up on Susan's comment, what marriage is not a paradox. Esther's poem nails it. Thanks, Terence!