Poetry by Sam Kerbel
AFTER-BIRTH

There is much grief tied to us
Not unlike a hospital cot
Where a new father sleeps
If he is lucky

And finds himself realizing
Not for the first time
He authored something
He knows not of

That is of him
And is now theirs
When a gift is a gift no longer
But the anxiety of repetition

There is the sparrow’s cry
Warm bread blowing from that window
Insinuating temptation like a comet
Into tired hearts turned inward without

Uncertainty is ugly is it not?
Until it is known & named…
How many hours? The reward
Is the hours spent…

The sea is where it is to be
Our last solace of chivalry
Where stars lay, held tightly so
She thrusts you baggily down

Is the emerald station
Where empires colonies
Collapse into that
Which is ordered but unknown

But this is what I meant
To say earlier, when we
Were talking before & you
Asked if it will all be okay

And I thought how my whole life
Until now all I wanted was to disappear
And be forgotten & holding you now
Reminds me this is not possible

Sam Kerbel was shortlisted for the 2024 Oxford Poetry Prize. His first chapbook, Can’t Beat the Price (2025), is available from Bottlecap Press. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Anthropocene, Argyle Literary Magazine, Lana Turner, Libre, and South Florida Poetry Journal, among other publications.

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