Joseph Kirschbaum

Jamais Vu 

After the chemo treatments 
we carried her
to the hospice bed in the living room
where the window shades
couldn’t be drawn tight enough.
Her eyes were raw nerves. 
Maybe she couldn’t see me
creep toward 
the front door
that is likely reclaimed wood now.
The rest of the house 
erased like a spelling mistake.
All of it transitioned
to sunlight.

Joseph Kerschbaum’s most recent publications include Mirror Box (Main St Rag Press, 2020) and Distant Shore of a Split Second (Louisiana Literature Press, 2018). Joseph has been awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Indiana Arts Commission. His work has appeared in journals such as Poetry Distillery, Hamilton Stone Review, Panoply, Flying Island, Ponder Review, Main St. Rag, and The Delinquent. Joseph lives in Bloomington, Indiana with his family.