is so fierce
ly independent that he
shied away from the auto
matic sliding doors and he
walked around until he
found a window he
could pry open and climb
through to get inside and climb
the stairs to my apart
ment so he
could refuse dinn
er because I cook
ed it and so we
could have a nice vi
sit
John Lee Clark is the author of the essay collection Where I Stand: On the Signing Community and My DeafBlind Experience (Handtype Press, 2014). His poems have appeared recently in American Poetry Review, The Nation, the New York Times, The Paris Review, Poetry, Poetry International, Shenandoah, and other venues. He lives in Hopkins, Minnesota, with his partner, the ASL Deaf artist Adrean Clark, and their three sons.