today, I looked at my son in his casket

I stared at his beauty mark

and I gave thanks to God

for a non-cancerous tumour

today, I looked at my son in his casket

I saw the record of an absent father

whose investment included one very

small deposit and zero interest

today, the doctor spoke to me about rope and

auto-erotic asphyxia and I said that

my son’s erection a few inches from

my nose had already made the point

today, the doctor offered vaccine immunity

and I refused to take it because the

death of one’s child is a well-known

contraindication to lifesaving jabs

today, I collected his personal effects at school

I took the clay ashtray that he

had once made for his father and

that I now use exclusively for him

today, I collected his personal effects at school

I bagged his princess hat and his

Juliet Capulet costume [without, of

course, the cord already at home]

today, I met my son’s boyfriend at McDonald’s

I bought a Happy Meal that came in

a red box and included a toy clown with

a thrill kill smile and a body bag

today, my son’s boyfriend decried the time

sensitive rules on Snapchat and then he

cried into his French fries because my

son no longer existed in his virtual world

today, poetry chose me like a POW at Buchenwald

in the gas chamber, I was kilned into the

shape of an immortal bird [a Phoenix in

mourning with a feather pen in its beak]

today, poetry chose me like a POW at Buchenwald

because my son’s dead body remains in my

mouth like an elegy baited with barbed hooks

that I must perforce chew and spit eternally

Abbreviated Poetry Biography for Dean Gessie

from Uncollected Press, Maryland, U.S., Henry Stanton, Publisher

Dean Gessie has achieved global success as an author and poet. Among dozens of honors for poetry, Dean won the Aesthetica Creative Writing Award in England, the UN-aligned Poetry Competition in Finland, the Samuel Washington Allen Prize in Massachusetts, the COP26 Poetry Competition in Scotland, the Enizagam Poetry Contest in California, the Allingham Arts Festival Poetry Contest in Ireland, the Doctor William Henry Drummond National Poetry Contest in Canada, the Indigo Open Prize in England, the Ageless Authors Poetry Competition in Texas, the Frank O’Hara Poetry Prize in Massachusetts, the Ink Nest Poetry Contest in North Carolina, the Editors’ Prize from the Spoon River Review in Illinois, the Southern Shakespeare Company Sonnet Contest in Florida and a Creators of Justice Literary Award from the International Human Rights Art Festival in New York. Also, he was twice selected for The Best 64 Poets by Black Mountain Press in North Carolina and he was one of twenty international poets included in the Poetry Archive NOW! World View video anthology in England. Dean’s poetry book, goat song, won the Seven Hills Literary Competition in Florida.