“The Sentencing of Dr. Larry Nassar” by Daniel Kossow

Daniel Kossow

THE SENTENCING OF DR. LARRY NASSAR

at the introduction
the one-on-one
semester starter
coffee table conference

my student                second semester senior
econ major                 manicured
tells me that he’s been

slaying
ample female bodies
and having a grand belly laugh

we are [a] similar

color and age and
he correctly assumes
sexual orientation

there is
he assumes again

an understanding between us

about the meaning of the word
slay

my student wants to talk
about conquest

asking nothing
he tips his cap to mine
he wants to see my grail

hear the ways
i talk about my grail
how many grails i have
owned counting
without counting
as they pile up

and are reduced to a verb
which is to say
a wink

which is to say
we flitter

in the comfort of our oneness

in the oneness of our
wounds                 aggression

in the oneness of our
reducing                 (so fluent)
all women                 to plunder

from Rattle #62, Winter 2018

__________

Daniel Kossow: “I believe that my thoughts are a sense; like seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, and smelling. I have no more say in how my thoughts arise and fall away than I do what passes before my eyes or into my ears. I write poetry because it’s the only way I know how to demarcate just how utterly confusing that is! Poetry allows me to embody my thoughts in sound and image; to watch them grow from random synapse to beauty. And when that works out after all that work, it feels really, really good.”

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