it’s true that i've never known where i am

This is only a note
to tell you I wish we
spent more time.
Queen Elizabeth II died
last week.
The last queen I will see
in my lifetime.
Now the people will
say God save the King.
I watched it happen on
television.

Anyway, how is heaven
and are there cigarettes?
Do they have kitchens
and a wooden arm chair
for you to sit in and ash?
I think you’d enjoy hearing
about my life
and how I get on.
You’d sit there nodding
with one of your wool
shawls next to the
Russian nesting dolls

I can tell you that
my friends father has
been diagnosed with
Parkinson's disease
She is a lot like me.
I wanted you to live
as long as I could ask
you about friendship
and what you thought
right before you died.

I want to know what your
favorite place is in the world
and if you liked Willie Nelson
or The Smiths.
What bed you slept in
when you had your worst
nightmares and what
happened in them?

Last night I dreamt someone
stabbed my belly with a knife
in a bunch of places
but I kept walking.
What would you say
of my dreams
and how would you
paint them with watercolors?

You should know I
think of you often.
I stand in California
in a house that is mine.
I don’t go to church,
but I live near mountains
and Ojai
which is the same thing.

I hope you found Jude
His delicate hands,
and red sauce.
Are there tomatoes
where you are?

mustard sandwiches

actually I picture us loathing each other
sitting in silence, like this
we say we’ll be better
already, I’m waiting for it






Grace Doughertyy (b. Baltimore, Maryland) is an actress and writer living in Los Angeles, California. Her first book of poetry, Tell Me About Heaven, will be published this November with Pois é.