Nostalgia
One need not be a chamber to be haunted;
One need not be a house;
The brain has corridors surpassing material places.
– Emily Dickinson
Long so after
beasts natural
you for came
on held you &
enough long
.creation first your see to
When happens what
you made who
away goes
?beyond great the to
Now is world the
backwards & broken
You haunting ghosts,
dementia, Alzheimer's,
,strokes
chased are now Parkinson's
.you by, say to thing hardest
This like don't
world
you without
.it in
Rest with God
.you for waiting he's
Deonte Osayande is a writer from Detroit, MI. He has represented Detroit at four National Poetry Slam competitions. He's a professor of English at Wayne County Community College. His books include Class (Urban Farmhouse Press, 2017), Circus (Brick Mantle Books, 2018) and Civilian (Urban Farmhouse Press, 2019). He also managed the Rustbelt Midwest Regional Poetry Slam and Festival for 2014 and 2018.
You can see more of his work in 9.1 and 3.1 and 3.1 and 3.4 and 3.4 and 4.4 and 6.1 and 7.3 and 8.2 and 8.2 and the 2019 Pocket Poems Anthology