by Tony Brinkley
On Hearing Another Poet Speak of Never Being Cured
for Cynthia Marie Hoffman
The flickers beat their wings
Against the glass door,
I bury two depressive
Episodes in DBT handbooks,
Sun epiphanies on the tulip
Fields, daffodils wilt as I
Photograph my twins in
Billowing floral dresses,
Thursday morning, I weep as
I butter toast, their tiny voices
Asking if I still have the
Bipolar, lilac blossoms
In my hands, if a parent gets
Help, they have a better
Chance of handling a
Diagnosis and I’ll be thirty-seven
This year and finally the
Canary survives the tunnel.
Celeste Maria Schueler is a poet and twin mother currently living in the Pacific Northwest. Originally from Mississippi, she has her BA in English and MFA in creative writing from Mississippi University for Women. She loves reading all sorts of books, baking bundt cakes, and taking her twin daughters on adventures. She looks forward to moving back to the South this coming summer. Her first poetry collection, Peonies of Resurrection, is forthcoming in 2027 from Unsolicited Press. You can find her on Instagram at celeste.schueler.
Tony Brinkley’s poetry, art and translations have appeared recently in Collateral, Trafika Europe, Ana, Nashville Review, Exchanges, Neologism, Poems In Translation, Bombay Review, Pictura Journal, Blue Unicorn, Merion West, Reverie, Viridine Library, Rumen, Soul, Last Leaves Review, Lover’s Eye Press, Miserere Review, Consequence Forum, Jerry Jazz Musician and Antifa Literary Review. Before retirement, Brinkley taught literature at the University of Maine. He is the editor (with Keith Hanley) of Romantic Revisions. He is the author of Stalin’s Eyes and Gomorrah. A chapbook – America, America – and a book of images – Icons of War – will be forthcoming in the next few months.