C l a i r e D o u g h e r t y —

3/23/24 (I’m not sure how to get rid of the money that I’ve spent)

I’m not sure how to get rid of the money that I’ve spent

I’m not saying anything about anything

I love my mother and I no longer fear her

My dad kind of looks like Daniel Craig

Anything might be like something else

I stand up and walk outside, I’m looking out

Rain falls from a cloudless sky In big fat drops

Where they come from They come from

years Of solitude and he diagnosed me with

celiac disease & other autoimmune conditions.

The toxicity and poor management at my workplace.

Underwater mothering, closing the window on

Other people when you actually listen to them.

And from many other things that I love

3/16/24 (I love my mother)

If to love him is to fear him my name

is not Claire Ann Dougherty

My date of birth is not May 27, 1993

My size isn’t the same as my mother’s

or any of the women who mothered her

I love my mother and I no longer fear her

Her size is like diaphanous clouds

The clouds don’t harden and sting

anymore now that I understand

where they come from They come from

the earth and they Come back down

like a million times. There is no number

to count them since Time can’t be counted

no matter how hard I try

3/24/24 (Curtains)

Curtains. I wrote about those curtains once

then I decided I didn’t have to.

Open every door and take everything inside

like a million times. There is no number

Nobody in Hollywood understands what ashes mean

which is why I am writing a goddamn sonnet

from under the red tablecloth

through strange coincidences or through

drinking vodka with olives and lemon

Blood was getting everywhere & I was afraid

of berries and a peach

and sons. God bless and good luck

Why do I speak into this skull?

Stupidly, but what do I know. The rayfish

.