60 for 60: evening and my dead once husband

By Zachary Erickson

I’ve always been tickled pink by the thought of séances. To call back the dead and learn what they have to tell us: what a marvelous thing, and what a frightening one. I’ve never participated in a séance, and I’m not really planning to: but it has been very funny seeing memes over the past (almost) two years proclaiming that Zoom meetings are our era’s séances.

The great poet Lucille Clifton (1936-2010) happened to publish a poem evoking a séance in our fortieth issue, in October 2004. As a poet, I often find that the really knockout part of a good poem is often the last line, and on that count I find this poem immensely satisfying. Here is “evening and my dead once husband,” a beautiful piece indeed.



evening and my dead once husband

Lucille Clifton

evening and my dead once husband
rises up from the spirit board
through trembled air i moan
the names of our wayward sons
and ask him to explain why
i fuss like a fishwife why
cancer and terrible loneliness
and the wars against our people
and the room glitters as if washed
in tears and out of the mist a hand
becomes flesh and i watch
as its pointing fingers spell

it does not help to know