Reminder: Third Thursday Poetry Night, March 19: Caitlin Conlon
Dan Wilcox
the Poetry Motel Foundation presents
Third Thursday Poetry Night
@
the Social Justice Center
33 Central Ave., Albany, NY
Thursday, March 19, 2026
7:00 sign up for the open mic; 7:30 start
open mic before & after the featured reader.
Featured Poet: Caitlin Conlon
$5.00 suggested donation, more if you got it, less if you can’t.
Your Springtime Host: Dan Wilcox
Caitlin Conlon is the author of two poetry collections published with Central Avenue, Burning the Ghost Light (2025) and The Surrender Theory (2022). As a proud employee of an independent bookstore, she reads a lot of books (and really wants to talk about them with you).
GENESIS
by Caitlin Conlon
In the beginning, my father tread the water of his life with chin held high.
Then his voice drained, became shallow enough
to stand up in. Eventually he had to sit down.
Death is a careless thief.
It takes everything except what’s killing you.
The last time I saw my father conscious
he looked at me like I was a ghost
haunting his bedside. Even then, half-gone,
we still had the same nose. As if to divide
my blood from his I repeated my name
on a loop, hoping it would register
in the part of his body that still
remembered creating me.
Our parents create us, then we create our
parents. It wasn’t until my father forgot my
silhouette that I was able to complete
his features. Months later, peering into the blue lake
where I drowned his ashes
I could finally see who he was.
●
Coming up:
April 16: Valerie Temple
May 21: Eric Wasileski
June 18: Natalya Sukhonos
July 16: Kate McNairy
August 20: Jason O’Toole
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