Incognito Grief: A Blues

Who knows the secrets in my gaze?
What holds me back when I might choke?
Who sees beyond my taut hellos
To see the grief etched on my face?
Nobody knows what lurks within;
Nobody brings me back again.
Who needs to disappear for a while?
Who sings my name beyond the veil?
Who has my memories, my tales?
Who’s lurking in my carpet’s dust?
Nobody feels this weight beneath my skin.
Who knows I’m grieving as I walk?
Who has the list of gravity’s costs?
Nobody but the man I’ve lost.

Copyright © 2024 by Allison Joseph. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on February 27, 2024, by the Academy of American Poets. 

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“This poem is inspired by the great songwriter and American treasure Paul Simon. I was teaching one of my college poetry classes about the strength of the interrogative in poetry. I thought of the great Paul Simon song ‘Nobody’—it’s a song full of questions that have no easy answers. The poem comes from a writing exercise that I gave to both my students and myself.”
—Allison Joseph