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published November 2009

Brad Davis was laid off in August. He now coordinates educational programming for Sylvester Manor, a 350 year old family estate and organic farm on Shelter Island, NY. (Seriously: check it out.) His poems have been published in places like DoubleTake, Image, Poetry, Paris Review, Tar River Poetry, Verse Daily, Connecticut Review, yada-yada-yada. Two are forthcoming in Chautauqua. He has four books from Antrim House, and a chapbook that won the Sunken Garden Poetry Prize. Brad and esposa Deb live (for now) in Pomfret, Connecticut. They have one son who has one wife who together live in Brooklyn, New York. All with gratitude.

95°F / 96% Humidity

by

This is not the room he sits in
with its ancient couch, fire­place,
wicker chairs, and two orig­i­nal
Moser prints. This is not the school
that owns the road the cot­tage
sits on or the last green val­ley.
This is not south­ern New England
or North America or some blue
planet called Earth. This is not August,
nor the soul of wit, not even
a win­dow into his frac­tal psy­che
sit­ting shivah near the cen­ter of what
this is not and who was laid off
last week. But what is that to you?