This Gift Card has Already been Redeemed—Mischa Willett

"Another day I sag into from sleep..."

Stack Takeover: Mischa Willett. We’ll be reading poetry from Mischa every week, including four poems published for the first time on this Substack. For an introduction to Mischa, read Ben Palpant’s interview with him here.

This Gift Card has Already been Redeemed

by Mischa Willett

Another day I sag
into from sleep

drag a self around 
the leash-length

wonder whether I should
or how, wonder what now.

But we haven’t,
whole-hearted,  
not as ourselves.

So it goes. After it
by which I mean the light

I’ll rest—another fit—
Blanketed in blamelessness. 

---

Mischa Willett (Ph.D.) is the author of two books of poetry, including The Elegy Beta (2020) and Phases (2017) as well as of essays, translations, and reviews that appear in both popular and academic journals. A specialist in nineteenth-century aesthetics, he teaches English at Seattle Pacific University.