There’s No Such Thing as Victimless:
To live is to inflict breath onto landscape.
To speak is to wield, to wield is to carry;
To carry a violence, the violence of breath.
Writing is committing the sin of speech into record.
The trees hear you when you speak to me.
The trees feel me when I scrawl your name.
When You Died Nothing Ended:
Cars rushed past me on Oakwood.
Choirs of Ypsi drunks who sang
with you, continued without you.
Leaves rusted and fell and were
covered with snow. Fruit trees
flowered the branches – it’s Spring
again before Winter – then Spring
once more.
Thomas Dunn is a multi-media artist, poet, and experimental filmmaker from Midland, Michigan. His poetry has received Fellowships from Cave Canem and the Community of Writers in 2023. Thomas is currently completing his MFA in Writing at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco.