David Thoreen’s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Verse Daily, Innisfree Poetry Journal, Kestrel, The Midwest Quarterly, New Letters, New Ohio Review, Presence: A Journal of Catholic Poetry, The American Journal of Poetry, Seneca Review, and elsewhere. A recipient of Minnesota Monthly's Tamarack Award and a Tennessee Williams Scholarship from the Sewanee Writers' Conference, he teaches writing and literature at Assumption University in Worcester, Massachusetts.
October
On his birthday she whispered, bereft,and understood her place in the scheme of things.The man next door walked his cocker spaniel,a plastic bag in his hand. The kettle began to steam. At the park she found her bench was takenby a man in an Irish sweater, so went a little furtherand sat beneath the linden. …