Jehanne Dubrow was born in Vicenza, Italy and grew up in Yugoslavia, Zaire, Poland, Belgium, Austria, and the US. She is the author of Stateside (Northwestern University Press, 2010) and lives and teaches in Maryland.
maritime terminology
It means the moveable stays tied.
Lockers hold shut. The waves don't slide
...
I see my husband shooting in Platoon,
and there he is again in M*A*S*H (how weird
to hear him talk like Hawkeye Pierce), and soon
...
We dreamed of glowing children,
their throats alive and cancerous,
their eyes like lightning in the dark.
...
For weeks, I breathe his body in the sheet
and pillow. I lift a blanket to my face.
There's bitter incense paired with something sweet,
...
He kisses me before he goes. While I,
still dozing, half-asleep, laugh and rub my face
...