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Thursday, May 22, 2025

EMPTY SPACES

by Adam Bagdasarian


AI-generated graphic by Shutterstock for The New Verse News.


There is no pill or drink for this
No pill for the rubble of home
for the dust of flesh
the ash of bone

No drink for the season-less years—
for the trees, for the water
the sunlight one cannot feel
or the empty plate of the evening meal

Each new day comes D.O.A.
rewound, somehow and replayed
rewound and played
rewound, replayed


Adam Bagdasarian’s Forgotten Fire was a finalist for the 2000 National Book Award. In 2002,  First French Kiss and Other Traumas was a finalist for the ALA Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults.