Isabel Chenot

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Empathy

I will invite heartache until pain shatters my ego –

until arduous waves rake me and roll to you
lifting debris,

softening every pith I touch, washing through
time, seeping down dark

crevices. So I will find your hidden mark
of pain, and feel it too.

And I will not be afraid. Or if I am, I will swallow fear

and walk unhidden where your pain has preyed,
turning on lights –

as when weak noises shatter nights
and space is nothing

but a risk erupting
in.

Recent published work includes some translations of Amado Nervo's beautiful poetry in the June 2017 issue of TinderBox Poetry Journal, and poems are forthcoming in Assisi.