Cameron Morse
Poem in Reply
Dear Friend, your postcard finds me well,
my wife pregnant, on a dark morning in March.
Ghosts float in the oak tree branches outside
my window. A turtle dove burrs the powerline,
watching cars whisk along Duncan, tailfeathers
draped like a pair of scissors over the cord.
Tires murmur like a lamasery. When I step out
to get the mail, sparrows brawling in a swirl
of dust-the world as we know it, ISIS
in Syria, Donald and Melania, my mother throws
open the storm door, erupting onto the front
stoop, and shouts until the two ragged birds stop
killing each other and fly off together.
Bio
Cameron Morse was diagnosed with a glioblastoma in 2014. With a 14.6 month life expectancy, he entered the Creative Writing Program at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and, in 2018, graduated with an M.F.A. His poems have been published in numerous magazines, including New Letters, Bridge Eight, Portland Review and South Dakota Review. His first poetry collection, Fall Risk, won Glass Lyre Press's 2018 Best Book Award. His latest is Terminal Destination (Spartan Press, 2019). He lives with his wife Lili and two children in Blue Springs, Missouri, where he serves as poetry editor for Harbor Review. For more information, check out his Facebook page or website.