Read the poem ‘Monument Square’ by Mark Evan Chimsky

This week’s poem, by Mark Evan Chimsky, begins with a glimpsed moment between two men, and finds in it a glorious celebration of intimacy, potential and freedom. I love this poem’s careful and tender attention to each man’s posture, gaze and gesture, and its euphoria at their clear and open love.

Chimsky’s poems and essays have appeared in The Gay & Lesbian Review, The Muleskinner Journal, The Sunlight Press, and The Three Rivers Poetry Journal. Mark is a recipient of the Anna Davidson Rosenberg Award as New/Emerging Poet. In addition, Mark is an affiliated faculty member teaching at Emerson College in Boston, and a playwright, whose play “Meeting Fingerman” was winner of the Honegger Prize for Best Short Play 2024. His one-act “The Secret Muse” debuted at the Wisconsin Shakespeare Festival.

Poets, please note that submissions to Deep Water are open now and through the end of the year. Deep Water is especially eager to share poems by Black writers, writers of color, indigenous writers, LGBTQ+ writers, and other underrepresented voices. Find a link to submit credits at mainewriters.org/deep-water.

Monument Square

What does it mean, this one man tying 
another’s shoe? Both are in their twenties or so, lean 
in their short-sleeve shirts too dark 
for the sunlit day. Perhaps brothers, one doing 
what the other wishes he could do. 
But the tenderness in the way he knots 
the laces is more than brotherly 
and there’s boldness in his gaze 
as he keeps the other’s eyes in view. 
Though he’s the one who kneels 
his hand holds more than just the shoe. 
They both understand 
that power can shift with the imperceptible 
lift of a hand or foot. 
I have never seen such giving 
or such taking, 
where intimacy, like jazz, is a constant 
riff on possibility— 
one man ties the other’s shoe 
and then ravenously they kiss.

– Mark Evan Chimsky

Megan Grumbling is a poet and writer who lives in Portland. Deep Water: Maine Poems is produced in collaboration with the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. “Monument Square,” ©2026 by Mark Evan Chimsky, appears by permission of the author. Submissions to Deep Water are open now and through the end of the year. For more information, go to mainewriters.org/deep-water.

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