Mantis 20 (Spring 2022)
New Poetry
Hollie Dugas
Jumpsuit
I want to wear this poem
like a jumpsuit, an ample
outfit that covers me
from head to toe,
one I can get dirty, dig
deep graves in—it blends
to me, turning me
to shadow. This is how
one must get to a body
of work—in uniform,
a garment that connects
the death that is in me
to the death outside.
This getup is fated
to tend secrets of those
who live beyond
themselves,
give meaningfulness—
it is meant to look
inconspicuous
in a six-foot hole,
make me invisible as I
record what is buried
on pieces of chiseled
stone, provide a place
for the forgotten
in the empty spaces
of the world. This suit,
it keeps me honest
as a hard day’s work.
It says, give me
your bones, I’ll know
what to do with them.
HOLLIE DUGAS lives in New Mexico. Her work is featured in Barrow Street, Reed Magazine, Crab Creek Review, Redivider, Pembroke, Salamander, Poet Lore, Watershed Review, Mud Season Review, Little Patuxent Review, Chiron Review, Louisiana Literature, and CALYX. Hollie has been a finalist twice for the Peseroff Prize at Breakwater Review, Greg Grummer Poetry Prize at Phoebe, Fugue’s Annual Contest, and has received Honorable Mention in Broad River Review. Additionally, “A Woman’s Confession #5,162” was selected as the winner of Western Humanities Review Mountain West Writers’ Contest (2017). Recently, Hollie was nominated for a 2020 Pushcart Prize and for inclusion in Best New Poets 2021. She is currently a member on the editorial board for Off the Coast.