Self-Portrait as Shostakovich
plays stud poker
smokes a pack
tap dances on piano
sleeps in unlit stairwell
valise packed
prays not yet not yet

Self-Portrait at Dinner
one person here
one person missing

Addendum for Healthcare Proxy
If I linger
before dying

Know I’m ready
for what is next.

But before you set
me free, play

the Brandenburgs
to the last

note, then again
just in case.

Carla Sarett

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Carla Sarett is a poet and fiction writer based in San Francisco. Her debut full-length poetry collection, She Has Visions, is published by Main Street Rag Press in November, 2022. Recent poems appear in Pithead Chapel, Overheard, Harpy Hybrid and elsewhere. Carla has a PhD from University of Pennsylvania.