D. Gilson
Triolet for Uncle Dennis
I have a life expectancy of ten more minutes, I will eat what I want.
—The Normal Heart
Towards the end, he’d only eat pudding
by the spoonful I’d feed him after school.
I’d walk to the kitchen (he’d lose his footing)
at the end of the hall to fetch his pudding,
vanilla or pistachio, stealing myself a cookie,
just one, not stealing, just one, the one rule.
(Cytomegalovirus eyes could not see the pudding
I fed him as we watched I Love Lucy after school.)
D. Gilson is the author of I Will Say This Exactly One Time: Essays (Sibling Rivalry, 2015); Crush (Punctum Books, 2014), with Will Stockton; Brit Lit (Sibling Rivalry, 2013); and Catch & Release (Seven Kitchens, 2012), winner of the Robin Becker Prize. He is a PhD candidate in American literature & cultural studies at The George Washington University, and his work has appeared in PANK, The Indiana Review, The Rumpus, and as a notable essay in Best American Essays.