There’s no “sass” in “dissociation.”
three feet behind my grin I speak
so seems my teeth is down for it
but it’s a make-do I do.
I DM P. L. Dunbar on some
whatchu mean “we?” no—
really, though. the rough metric
opening this a lie to make
done the otherwise I say I is.
yet, the we I been subtweets
me—“whatchu mean ‘I?’”—
answer’s off my tongue, so:
authentic, no? where “fine,” “OK,”
“yes” get forged? I split my difference
between here and gone,
a distance of hard words
hissed; presence of the harms’
numb climb: I’m fine, I’m fine.
Copyright © 2025 by Douglas Kearney. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on July 10, 2025, by the Academy of American Poets.
“‘There’s no ‘sass’ in ‘dissociation.’’’ is, in part, a mnemonic, to help me remember the word I mean to be saying (which, I often mis-say as ‘disassociation’). Yet, it’s also a way of thinking about ‘masks’ and ‘masking,’ subjects I can’t seem to shake. Masks are sometimes verbal, sometimes a physical presentation. Often, when I engage people, I feel like I’m holding a cardboard cutout of myself about a yard before me. The funny thing about it is it’s not an attempt to be insincere, but rather a means of being present when I feel absent. Mental health is fun.”
—Douglas Kearney
Douglas Kearney
Douglas Kearney is the author of Optic Subwoof (Wave Books, 2022).