Vox Populi
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Sally Bliumis-Dunn: That Night
Was it the full-length mirror in the tacky-posh hotel
that held us naked in its flourished golden frame,
or maybe the slick white dresser and rococo headboard
lined with plush pillows, or the black and silver
wallpaper stripes that ran from floor to ceiling
like a cage lit by moon in a darkness held at bay
beyond this room where the loud chandelier
lit us as though on a stage where we act our rawest selves
in an unfamiliar room that begged us and begged us more
with its tasseled brassy breath?
~~~~
Copyright 2025 Sally Bliumis-Dunn
Sally Bliumis-Dunn teaches Modern Poetry and Creative Writing at Manhattanville College, the Personal Essay at the 92nd Street Y and offers manuscript conferences at the Palm Beach Poetry Festival. Her books include Echolocation (Plume/Mad Hat, 2018).
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On fire, that poem ❤️
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Sexuality is a much under-sung subject in American poetry, in my opinion. Our puritan roots, I suppose.
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Says so much in only a few words.
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doesn’t it, though?
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Thank you. I was a little bit late reading VP today. Now the day can start.
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welcome!
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Have always loved this poem, each word. “[M]ore” has never done more.
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This poem zooms me right in with its tension of details like “tacky-posh.” Wow.
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Yes, that kenning does a lot of work.
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It’s just one sentence, but what a sentence!
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So many memories….and so many more to make.
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