Check out the new issue of Think Journal, its first perfect-bound edition, including new poetry from David Yezzi, Jill Alexander Essbaum, Deborah Warren, Ashley Anna McHugh, and many others (such as Rilke and Housman, translated from the German and Latin respectively by the amazing Len Krisak). Click below to subscribe! E-Verse also congratulates Think Journal on its first of what we hope will be many Pushcart prizes.

“Advice” by Ernest Hilbert

When one is absent
The others won’t miss her.
We give attention
To the one we see.

When he’s off,
He’s through. You talk
To the one next to you,
Note the newly arrived.

Once gone, hearts seem
To grow fonder,
But only of the cruder
Outline left behind.

They are less fond
Of the bundle
Of difficulties
And dullness that fills

Back in when the welcome
Has worn again.
You may solve this
By appearing

To be everywhere
At once, but
In the end, you’ll be
Nowhere ever again.