Poetry: He never puts names by Lee Potts

on the letters he sends.
They can be for any-
one, these envelopes of
ashes. In this one he
asks after my lonely,
insomniac child.
All my sons can sleep. His
new lover is about
to leave her husband. Why
tell me? We aren’t that close.
He warns me against sins
I will not commit. These
words must be for someone
else he knows. With no name
even he can’t be sure.


Bio: Lee Potts is the author of the chapbook And Drought Will Follow and is poetry editor at Barren Magazine. His work has appeared in Rust + Moth, Whale Road Review, UCity Review, Parentheses Journal, Firmament, Moist Poetry Journal, and elsewhere. He lives just outside of Philadelphia. He’s @LeePottsPoet on Twitter.