Jackie Clark is the author of Aphoria (Brooklyn Arts Press) and the chapbooks Office Work (Greying Ghost), I Live Here Now (Lame House Press), and Sympathetic Nervous System (Bloof Books). Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in The Brooklyn Rail, The Tiny, and the anthology Ritual and Capital co-published by Wendy's Subway and Bard Graduate Center. She works at Eugene Lang College for Liberal Arts at The New School and teaches creative writing at New Jersey City University. She can be found online at nohelpforthat.com.
from DEPRESSION PARTS
Recently I heard Brenda Shaughnessy and Mary Ruefle read poems. Each one read a poem about their siblings. Brenda read a poem about only having one sister and how they were stuck with each other despite whether or not you are most suited to help each other. Mary read a poem about her and her brother’s relationship, how their love was so big that is caused this great wind between them, that because the love was so great they couldn't really regard one another, they couldn't really come together. In high school this girl Nina made a comment in passing at lunch one day saying how she didn’t really think of me as someone who had a family. I still wonder about this observation all these years later.