The Cumulative Effect By J.D. Isip

The power had been out for days.
Bottle of cheap whiskey, a third gone,
my brother hadn’t even got to her death.
My little dog shivered under the covers.

Eyes bloodshot, “You don’t know how hard it is,”
what he tried to put into order, the difficulty of it
plain on his red face, “What do you know anyway?”

Before I could make my case, if possible,
the dog went still, a warm stream of urine
pouring over my leg, “Oh shit! Oh, goddamnit!”
My dog leapt to a corner, eyes wide on me.

“It’s okay,” I said, “It’s okay. You’re just cold.”
My brother began to cry in starts, like hiccups,
“You’re right, you’re right. I don’t feel anything.”

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.