Liam Dougherty

Crow’s Nest

(listen to the poem, read by the author)

I am jealous of ma’am swinging by her mom’s
To drop off skim milk and plain cheerios
in her red Kia Sorento.

Time is a bent thing for her;
all motions are forward and ontological.

I haven’t swung by a place in twelve years
And all my movements are wayward sons.
The gasping circumstance of here and again
hits the ocean floor,
makes mud it’s so heavy.
Sometimes I am the ocean and sometimes the schooner.

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About the Author

Liam Dougherty is a husband, father, and disability rights activist in Philadelphia. He studied philosophy at St. John’s College. He lives with the neuromuscular disability Friedreich’s ataxia.