Daisy Bassen

THEY’RE EVERYWHERE

Promises made with no intention of being kept

Are the default, the way a robin stands in

For bird, the way their red breast stands in

For cheer and nature in manageable measures,

The way you know when I say I can’t help

You if you don’t want to be helped, I mean

I’m out, even if I forgo brushing my palms against

Each other, slapping The End on the screen

And letting it sit there before it goes dark

And the lights come up. We made a deal means

I think you broke it, the way day breaks the night,

The last stars witnesses who won’t speak up

On anyone’s behalf.

Robins, by default, are searching

For worms, who are doing their level best to stay

Hidden, riddling the earth into rut, into a welcome lust;

Worms, by default, ruin our appetites with one bite,

Though they have enough hearts left to live on,

I can’t promise you anything but that.

It’s not much to go on.

To go on.

Go on.

Daisy Bassen is a poet and practicing physician who graduated from Princeton University’s Creative Writing Program and completed her medical training at The University of Rochester and Brown. Her work has been published in Oberon, McSweeney’s, and [PANK] among other journals. She was the winner of the So to Speak 2019 Poetry Contest, the 2019 ILDS White Mice Contest and the 2020 Beullah Rose Poetry Prize. She was doubly nominated for the 2019 Best of the Net Anthology and for a 2019 and 2020 Pushcart Prize. She lives in Rhode Island with her family.

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