My Mother Sent Me by Michael Meyerhofer

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend December 18, 2014   My Mother Sent Me   Michael Meyerhofer

a text message from her coffin. It said Glad you’re not here. She’s always doing stuff like that. She says it’s to help me savor my remaining days. But I know it’s because I’m the only one left who hasn’t changed his number.            Copyright © 2014 by Michael Meyerhofer. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “‘My Mother Sent Me’ came to me as I was moving cross-country, mesmerized by the rust and gold deserts framing the highway, and thinking of all the people I’d like to share the moment with. From there, I guess it turned into a short, darkly comedic rumination on the lingering nature of grief, as well as an affirmation of the kind of mindfulness that (I hope) grief can sometimes propagate.” —Michael Meyerhofer   Michael Meyerhofer is the author of Damnatio Memoriae (Brick Road Poetry Press, 2011) and What To Do If You’re Buried Alive, forthcoming from Split Lip Press in 2015. He serves as the poetry editor of Atticus Review and lives in Fresno, California. Most Recent Book by Meyerhofer   Damnatio Memoriae (Brick Road Poetry Press, 2011) "The sun rears" by Jennifer Bartlett "Getting Close" by Victoria Redel "I Pack Her Suitcase with Sticks, Light the Tinder, and Shut the Lid" by Rob Schlegel Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038