in conversation  today—
a word for when things go wrong.
the daily ugly of what shouldn’t be.

All that we avoid mentioning:
ugly of shootings of innocents,
exploitation, slavery; the ugly tone
of the powerful, the ugly tone
of irrational words, self-serving
policies… All the times we answer
fine but it isn’t.  The unspoken in
Untitled. How close the word skims
you figure it out yourself, in a skinned dis-
connect.   No clue.  Not interested in you.

Let’s start with a teen-age boy.
His detention center doesn’t allow any kindness,
any touch.  But, someone volunteered to teach
a writing class where he wrote about wanting to be a bird,
fly to where he could meet summer and fall
in Honduras.  You wouldn’t call something
like that Untitled.  Nor would you call it
Today With a Dash of Yearning…
or talk about how Tomorrow will be dressed.
Whatever the title, his writing will help him
when ugliness comes up.  And now,
tell me about you. How do you cope
when ugliness comes up?

—

Kitty Jospé holds an MA in French Literature, NY University and an MFA Poetry Pacific University, OR. (2009). She has been Art Docent since 1998 at the Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, NY and since 2008 she has been moderating weekly poetry sessions. Her work has appeared in many journals and published in five books of her poems as well as other anthologies.