Memento Mori: poems - Softcover

Coe, Charles

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1948585022 ISBN 13: 9781948585026

Publisher: Leapfrog Press, 2019

Synopsis

Memento Mori is a meditation on mortality, change and loss. Rather than being simply somber, this volume observes our human condition through a poetic kaleidoscope, with glimpses of irony and humor that offer a refreshing contrast to the more difficult moments. Coe is a storyteller who writes with compassion, insight and a razor-sharp eye for detail.

About this title

About the Author

Charles Coe is the author of two previous volumes of poetry, both with Leapfrog Press: “All Sins Forgiven: Poems for my Parents” (2013) and “Picnic on the Moon” (1999). He’s also the author of “Spin Cycles,” a novella published by Gemma Media Charles is the winner of a fellowship in poetry from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and was selected by the Associates of the Boston Public Library as a “Boston Literary Light in 2014.” He teaches poetry in the MFA programs at Salve Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island, and Bay Path University in Longmeadow, Massachusetts.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

House Money
Two elderly black men navigating the crowded sidewalk
on canes stop to greet each other, exchange a handshake
complicated as a physics midterm.
“Hey man,” one exclaims. “I ain’t seen you in a dog’s age!
What’s happenin’?”
“Well, I’m still alive,” his friend replies, pauses with a comic’s timing
then adds, “And they still tryin’ to kill me.”
They laugh and shake their heads in shared awareness,
two old black men in America who’ve beaten the odds.
Now they’re playing with house money.

Edition details

• Publisher: Leapfrog Press
• Publication date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1948585022
• ISBN 13: 9781948585026
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 100