SELF-PORTRAIT AS PHINEAS GAGE’S LEGENDARY SKULL

The skin hides what’s most impressive—
and you’ll be more disturbed
by what you see from the scalp down.
Let that be a lesson. No longer
interested in love, I sent away
the poisoned apple I had every intention
of eating, core and all, before I made
other plans. It’s uncomfortable
to be confronted with all you have
to live with—and worse, what you have
to live without. The gold in my teeth
is my gold. The opal in my eyes is my opal.
All this and more I’ve earned with time.
If only I could share some of it with you.

Jon Lemay is a Brooklyn-based poet from New Hampshire. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Syracuse University, where he served as an Editor-in-Chief for Salt Hill Journal. Jon's work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and longlisted for the Ralph Angel Poetry Prize—and Jon was a finalist for a fellowship at the University of Wisconsin’s Institute for Creative Writing. His poetry has appeared in TriQuarterly, Salamander, Nashville Review, Juked, Bodega, Prelude, and elsewhere—and his reviews have appeared in Barrelhouse and Poetry Northwest.