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Brenda Shaughnessy was born in Okinawa, Japan, in 1970 and grew up in Southern California. She is the author of five poetry collections, including The Octopus Museum, So Much Synth, and Our Andromeda. She is an assistant professor of English at Rutgers–Newark, and lives in Verona, New Jersey, with her family.

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All Possible Pain

by Brenda Shaughnessy
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Feelings seem like made-up things,
though I know they’re not.

I don’t understand why they lead me
around, why I can’t explain to the cop
People on couch
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