STIRRING
Founded in 1999, Stirring is one of the oldest continuously publishing journals on the internet.
Stirring is an electronic quarterly journal.
Founded in 1999, Stirring is one of the oldest continuously publishing journals on the internet.
Stirring is an electronic quarterly journal.
DEREK JG WILLIAMS
on the balcony I was
real ugly
head in my hands
I couldn’t catch my breath
alone
I felt like O’Hara
slumped at the bottom
of a stairwell after a party
a grey ashtray
& a stack of empty cans
to keep him company
O’Hara at the bottom
of the ocean
O’Hara held up outside
his apartment
I felt like a forgotten son
an unloved husband
it was the middle of the day
summer
I was sweating
it pooled under my eyes
it stung
God I was ugly
when I saw them
wild & green
a small flock
with red-orange heads
the parrots perched
in the cherry tree
eating the unripe fruit
they didn’t care about me
or that the fruit
wasn’t yet sweet
I’d only heard rumor
of their existence
it was my first time
seeing
which stopped my squalling
I felt a little better
& went inside
to drink a glass of water
you can’t
drink water & fly
at the same time
Derek JG Williams is an American writer. He is the author of Poetry Is a Disease (Greying Ghost Press, 2022). He holds a doctorate in English and Creative Writing from Ohio University, and an MFA from the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Derek's poems and prose are published or forthcoming in Pleiades, The Writer's Chronicle, Adroit Journal, DIAGRAM, Salamander, The Rumpus, Prairie Schooner, Best New Poets, Plume, and on Boston's MBTA trains as a part of the city's Poetry on the T program, among others. He lives in Germany with his wife and dog. Learn more about him at https://www.derekjgwilliams.com/.
