Listen to Kate Pyontek read “Nocturne with Construction Detour” from Shō No. 5 (Summer 2024).
About this poem: I wrote the first draft of this poem in an online class I took with Aimee Nezhukumatathil on writing aubades and nocturnes. The poem considers a period where I wasn’t sure whether I still had feelings for someone. There’s a point for me at the end of love where my heart is confused by the habit or memory of love, and it takes a difficult negotiation to find my way. That negotiation never gets easier, but there is a path through.
Kate Pyontek is a poet, writer, and artist who has been awarded fellowships from arts institutions including Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts and The Volland Foundation. Their work is published or forthcoming in POETRY, Southeast Review, Ecotone, Mississippi Review, Consequence, The Glacier, Shō Poetry Journal, Another Chicago Review, Southern Indiana Review, and elsewhere. Kate lives and works outside of Boston.