Memorabilia
I was washing dishes for the move.
It was the end of a friendship, so we had
to leave the apartment and define
our differences in new places. My hand
was inside the glass, scrubbing the rim
with a soapy rag, when the glass cracked
and sliced my finger at the knuckle.
Paper towels wadded round it, I walked
to the doctor just a block away.
I’d come to know him over the years.
He could quote Homer in Greek, so
I trusted he could stitch my finger.
And he did. But it left a scar I have still
over thirty years later, a shape arced
and forked at one end and that always
reminded me of a stinger,
a tail tipped with poison
that struck deep and hurt long.
*
Michael T. Young’s fourth collection, Mountain Climbing a River, will be published by Broadstone Books January 15, 2026. His third full-length collection, The Infinite Doctrine of Water, was longlisted for the Julie Suk Award. He received a Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the Jean Pedrick Chapbook Award. His poetry has been featured on Verse Daily and The Writer’s Almanac. It has also appeared in numerous journals including I-70, The Journal of New Jersey Poets, The Rockford Review, and Vox Populi.
