Tag: Matthew Isaac Sobin

Before the Eulogy by Matthew Isaac Sobin

~ ONE ART ~ 2 Comments

Before the Eulogy

I am full of rebuttals
when the rabbi arrives, primed
for argumentation.

How can there be a holy word,
rituals whispered,
when you were made to live deep

within yourself? A machine
stammered on your behalf,
& you were essentially halved.

What remains is a shape
of absence & obstinance. I want
the rabbi to feel opposition

to a loving God, equivalent or more
to my love for you. But that’s wrong, too.
It took more than nine hundred days

to realize, I spoke not only from grief
but restrained rage.
There’s a politics of death

which is a little like
Darwinism, or waterfowl flying
in formation, navigating

distant points. Each pilgrimage swerves
a flight path toward a terminus. The rabbi
mines forgiveness, but mis–

understands. I cannot forgive
your life before decompressing
the blame for your death.

The process of death
was a winnowing,
refining a multifaceted core

to a diminished persona. Give me
all the disparate layers
composing your humanity. I forget death

is a form of accelerated erosion
& you were broken, storm–
torn strata. When the rabbi

exits, I’m drenched
in wonder, holding mercy close.
Mourners deserve

validation, a holy word. You were
a great man,
a perfect father.

*

Matthew Isaac Sobin’s (he/him) first book was the science fiction novella, The Last Machine in the Solar System. Recent poems have appeared in ONE ART, Stanchion, and ballast. His poetry has been nominated for Best of the Net and Best Spiritual Literature. His chapbook Blue Bodies was published by Ghost City Press in their 2025 Summer Series. He received an MFA from California College of the Arts. When he’s not teaching high school, you may find him selling books at Books on B in Hayward, California. He is on Twitter @WriterMattIsaac, Instagram @matthewisaacsobin, and Bluesky @matthewisaacsobin.bsky.social. His Linktree is linktr.ee/matthewisaacsobin.

Two Poems by Matthew Isaac Sobin

~ ONE ART ~ 2 Comments

Long Drive Home

      For some reason that I do not know,
      his old power isn’t there… He is meeting the ball,
      time after time, and it isn’t going anywhere.

            – Reporter James Kahn, writing about Lou Gehrig,
            April 1939

I ask after your diagnosis, when do you
go back to the doctor? What a strange
answer: you’ve been referred
to a physical therapist. Like you have
a broken foot, or vertigo. Also here’s a pill
to prolong suffering, maybe
a month.

I read the doctor’s bio
on the prestigious hospital’s website:
A top specialist, they received
many awards that commend them
for compassion. Words in absence: treated, cured, lives
saved.

It’s obscene, pornographic, the way backs
get slapped. Specializing in identification: they test
a thousand tests to detect a chance
you’ve got something bad, because bad isn’t (always)
terminal. Patients arrive with hope/dread, anxious for the process
of elimination.

Eighty-five years since the Iron Horse
faltered, the invincible vanquished. Men walked
on the moon & didn’t go back for fifty years—
smallpox, measles, mumps, polio
eradicated. A long list of historical accomplishments
riddles the internet.

Maybe what’s required is an abundance
of research scientists, fewer diagnosticians,
our priorities scrambled by polarity. Or perhaps
what I’m offering (or trying to)
is long overdue: thank you
for picking up & telling me
truthfully, they’d run out of tests
to run.

*

My Wife Is A Loaded Shopping Cart

According to our salsa instructor
I must shorten my steps
To be a leader. To allow her
To spin around me in a wide arc–
Let the cart do the work
On its wheels. Its weight
Gives momentum or turns
Into an anchor if you pull
Perpendicular to the focus–
I raise my wristwatch
And watch as she spins
Away in time. The beat
Quickens until my feet
Barely move at all

*

Matthew Isaac Sobin’s (he/him) first book was the science fiction novella, The Last Machine in the Solar System. Poems are forthcoming or have recently appeared in Stanchion, ballast, Ghost City Review, MAYDAY Magazine, The Hooghly Review, Stone Circle Review, and Hog River Press. He received an MFA from California College of the Arts. When he’s not teaching middle school, you may find him selling books at Books on B in Hayward, California. He is on Twitter @WriterMattIsaac, Instagram @matthewisaacsobin, and Bluesky @matthewisaacsobin.bsky.social. His Linktree is linktr.ee/matthewisaacsobin.