Monday, December 18, 2023

The Hard Stuff By J.D. Isip


The smell could make your eyes hurt. You believed
it would take the varnish off the kitchen table. Nothing
could make you take a sip back then. Back when dad
would cup the snifter under your nose, “Take a drink,
son,” he’d tease, watching you squirm. “A real man,”
he would say, as your brother moved you aside, “Drinks
what he’s given.” When my brother lost the first baby,
he didn’t make a big deal. My father is dying, slowly,
but he doesn’t mention it. “It burns! Oh god, it burns!”
I say about most of this life. Because it does. It does.







J.D. Isip’s full-length poetry collections include Kissing the Wound (Moon Tide Press, 2023) and Pocketing Feathers (Sadie Girl Press, 2015). His third collection, tentatively titled I Wasn’t Finished, will be released by Moon Tide Press in early 2025. J.D. lives in Texas with his dogs, Ivy and Bucky.

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