A Poem that Refuses a Name Part 1
Like an arm that always hurts
From too many bullets that it packed
But it is the left arm that hurts
Not the right but the left
Maybe it hurts from cigarettes
it never held
Knowing pain
like acetylcholine living
in the synaptic cleft
panicking, looking for a mate
like cicadas in the summer
screaming, hollering
ignoring time
as the Sun ignores the musing
of mundane men
is like a shot,
at a nicotine receptor
to cause a cascade
to forget to breathe
and relieve or relive
the moment a brain lost its way
of sodium to
enter the cell
knowing that this dance will begin again
Loving pain
like a cigarette loves new preys
slowly oxidizing
subsidizing
ostracizing
dimerizing
every thought
hope
of DNA to repair itself
to only release the mind
from the prisons of the day
First Published: All the Lives We Ever Lived Anthology Vol. 4 (Lighthouse, December 2023)
Enrique Gautier is a BIPOC veteran, poet, educator, photographer, and community advocate whose work bridges the worlds of justice, storytelling, and healing. A Navy veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom, he now serves as full-time English faculty at Red Rocks Community College and teaches cultural competency at the college’s Law Enforcement Academy. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Naropa University, a JD, and a BS in Biology, and was selected for the Lighthouse Writers Workshop Poetry Collective. His debut poetry collection—praised for its formal innovation—is currently under national award consideration. Gautier’s work has appeared in Bombay Gin, The War Horse, The Warrior Poet, and Veterans Life Magazine, with recent exhibitions at the Colorado Photography Art Center and Aurora City Hall. Enrique is the recipient of this year’s Lighthouse Writer’s Workshop Lit Fest Veteran fellowship, with judge Benjamin Hertwig praising his “formal dexterity and linguistic vigor” that “harnesses a controlled momentum that forces the reader to sit still and reckon with the irreconcilable.” He serves as Senior Vice Commander of VFW Post 1, where he leads trauma-informed writing workshops for veterans, and was recently named the inaugural judge for Poppy Press’ chapbook competition for veteran poets. His teaching is rooted in “informed care pedagogy,” centering equity, lived experience, and creative expression.