*

Chad Parenteau hosts Boston’s long-running Stone Soup Poetry series. His latest collection is The Collapsed Bookshelf. His poetry has appeared in journals such as Résonancee, Molecule, Ibbetson Street, Pocket Lint, Cape Cod Poetry Review, Tell-Tale Inklings, Off The Coast, The Skinny Poetry Journal, The New Verse News, The Rye Whiskey Review, Nixes Mate Review and anthologies such as French Connections and Sounds of Wind: New American Lyrics, where his work was translated into Albanian. He serves as Associate Editor of the online journal Oddball Magazine.

“I Thought You Were Off All Week”

Chad Parenteau

I am the king
of has been,

brushed off
among phones,

left to call
in my day.

No more
ripples

from every
thrown stone.

Gifted with
obsolescence.

Thanks for
everything

they can’t
remember.

Stay here
long enough,

become part
of story

no one
ever heard.

 — Chad Parenteau

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