I can see Chere, hip Chere,
with thick, long brown hair,
t-shirts and faded Levi’s—
grunge cool before
Starbuck’s set up
its first coffee shop.
Chere had it down.
Painter, sculptor, veteran
of St. Mark’s Place—
her window overlooking
three decades of counter-
culture. Tattoos, hardcore
piercings, studded leather.
Hipsters, Goths, punks.
I once asked her about failure,
how to handle it. I was so sensitive
then. She said in the beginning,
when she sent slides to galleries
and they all said no, she would hide
under the covers for a week.
“It was a waste,” she said.
Chere
Karol Nielsen is the author of the memoirs Raising the Price of the House, Walking A&P, and Black Elephants and three poetry chapbooks. Her first memoir was shortlisted for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. Her full-length poetry collection was a finalist for the Colorado Prize for Poetry. Her poem “This New Manhattan” was a finalist for the Ruth Stone Poetry Prize. Her work has appeared in Epiphany, Guernica, and elsewhere.
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