Susan Tepper is the author of nine published books of fiction and poetry. Her most recent titles are CONFESS a poetry chapbook (Cervena Barva Press, 2020) and the quirky road novel WHAT DRIVES MEN (Wilderness House Press, 2019). Tepper has received eighteen Pushcart Prize Nominations and other awards and honors. http://www.susantepper.com

Absence

By Susan Tepper

We are the absence of
what used to matter:
Coal-grey mornings that
bring me home again
to an invincible youth
now a glance out a window
that is not describable
pain but more a pull
as if caught in a rip tide.