Aileen Bassis
Witness
start large— wars, disasters, smoky sky unfathomable losses you
can't get
your head around these groaning beasts that
growl
in your sleeplessness (a snapping sound darts
into your thoughts) head lines, life lines, heart
creases limp as cut cloth
try to find
pill bottles in the drawer — switch on the kitchen light
to the startled amber sheen of cockroaches
flooding
the counter tucking into tiny spaces between cupboards and walls
flaking
old paint and mold. The world
burrows
between my lips.
Bio
Aileen Bassis is a visual artist and poet in Long Island City with a practice in book arts, printmaking, photography and installation. She's the author of two chapbooks, "The Other Side of the Mirror" (Unlikely Books) and "Advice for Travelers and other poems" (Black Sunflowers Press). Her collection, "Among Sinners and Saints" will be published in 2026 by Shanti Arts. She was awarded two poetry residencies to the Atlantic Center for the Arts, a fellowship in poetry to Yaddo Foundation, grants in literature from NYState Council on the Arts and the Queens Arts Fund.