Skip to Content

The Republic of Tenderness

By Nathan Spoon

You are living inside the cup of another life. Water
is running slowly. Somewhere a hand is overflowing
with the abundance and celebration denizens dream of.
Meanwhile if there is happiness it hangs within images
of solar eclipse : moistening the soil in a pot in order
to be drawn upon joyfully by the plant whose roots
have spread throughout. It is the feeling of confidence

after all that makes your life as it is possible. Space
alone cannot be enough if you mean to leave a miracle
permeating your dust. This is a note of encouragement
left in a difficult world during a difficult moment. This
is a secret you already know even though you are waiting
to realize that. You are the answer everybody else is
waiting for. There is no pressure. You are the answer.

 

 

Listen as Nathan Spoon reads  "The Republic of Tenderness".
Added: Friday, February 26, 2021  /  Used with permission
Nathan Spoon
Allison Steinquest

Nathan Spoon is an autistic poet with learning disabilities whose poems appear or are forthcoming in American Poetry Review, Columbia Journal, The Cortland Review, Gulf Coast, and Poetry. His debut collection, Doomsday Bunker, and a chapbook, My Name Is Gretchen Merryweather, were published in 2017. He is editor of Queerly.

Other poems by this author

Back to top