Michael Bazzett
On the Day I Die
my birth will be over fifty-seven years old and my death
will be a newborn. The fact that my birth will be elderly
and my death a crinkly babe might seem counterintuitive.
And while you hold my infant death in your arms, the fact
that the perfumed scent of its newborn head will draw you
to repeatedly press your nose against its velvet scalp and take
long blissful hits might seem even more counterintuitive. But
just wait until you find out that neither baby nor elderly man
ever age, that one stays mournful and the other sweet-smelling
forever, with unblinking blue eyes that never darken with time.
Michael Bazzett reads “On the Day I Die”
Michael Bazzett is the author of four collections of poetry, most recently The Echo Chamber (Milkweed Editions, 2021). His work has appeared in Granta, The London Magazine, The American Poetry Review, The Sun, The Nation, and The Paris Review. His next collection, Cloudwatcher, winner of the Stern Prize from APR, is forthcoming from Copper Canyon in early 2026.