CAMERON MORSE

Frequencies

During her first week, Naomi
will sometimes fall
into a sort of glassy-eyed
reverie, an intense
expression of listening
to a frequency
beyond my range, the wind
whistling in the pipe
holes of the basketball goal,
the snow crackling
below the interrogation light
of the sun. Little tridents
of a bird’s footprints
on the front stoop. Burrs
of frost on the gate latch,
the wisteria vine. Whatever
it is she’s picking up on,
whatever the secret whispered
in her ear, the room’s so
quiet it could just explode.

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Cameron Morse was diagnosed with a glioblastoma in 2014. With a 14.6 month life expectancy, he entered the Creative Writing Program at the University of Missouri—Kansas City and, in 2018, graduated with an M.F.A. His poems have been published in numerous magazines, including New Letters, Bridge Eight, Portland Review and South Dakota Review. His first poetry collection, Fall Risk, won Glass Lyre Press's 2018 Best Book Award. His latest is Baldy (Spartan Press, 2020). He lives with his wife Lili and two children in Blue Springs, Missouri, where he serves as poetry editor for Harbor Review. For more information, check out his  Facebook page  or website.