AUTHOR ROSALIENE BACCHUS


Reaching minds and hearts through storytelling



POEM "WATCH" BY AMERICAN POET DAN "SULLY" SULLIVAN



DAN "SULLY" SULLIVAN is an American poet and educator based in Bloomington, Indiana, with nearly two decades of experience in Open Mic Poetry performance and teaching. Born in Chicago, Illinois, he earned an MFA and MA in English Literature and Creative Writing from Indiana University (2016-2019). Since 2019, he holds the position of Student Support & Registration Representative – Advance College Project at the university.


Sully is a three-time Chicago Poetry Slam Champion, a recipient of the Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Poetry Award, the Earl S. Ho Award for Excellence in Teaching Creative Writing, and an Indiana University Writer in South Asia Recipient. His poems have appeared in Guernica Magazine, Rattle Magazine, Chicago Reader, and The Golden Shovel Anthology: New Poems Honoring Gwendolyn Brooks.


Sully has authored two poetry collections: The Blue Line Home (EM Press, 2016) and O Body (Haymarket Books, 2023). He is also co-editor of the anthology Respect the Mic: Celebrating 20 Years of Poetry from a Chicagoland High School (Penguin Random House, 2022).


Known for his work exploring masculinity, vulnerability, and resilience, Sully creates spaces where poetry and human experience intersect, inviting audiences to engage deeply with their own stories. Through international performances and community workshops, he empowers participants to find their voice and connect authentically through language. Whether on stage or in the classroom, his poetry resonates as a call for self-reflection and connection.


Photo of Dan "Sully" Sullivan by Sullivan and Sullivan Studios published on Poet’s Official Website at https://dansully.com/


WATCH BY DAN "SULLY" SULLIVAN



Watch:

after Nikki Patin


how, on your way in, the sweats you wear to meet unspoken dress codes draw glances.


how lobby small talk makes their eyes flit from your face to your shoulder to behind you,


how you might not even get that, like there's someone more important on the room's horizon.


how they see through you, despite any amount of body you have.


how people side-eye you on the treadmill then look away, quick.


how some guy opts for the next aisle over in the locker room like fat is infectious.


how your face undoes itself when it finally reaches the bathroom mirror.


how your shoulders unclench from their perceptive coils.


how you breathe when alone in your thoughts.


how your jaw eases when you get off your tenterhooks.


how sudden & easy it is to step out knowingly under the halogen.


how the water responds, when your toes hit the empty pool.


how your gentle touch quakes the stillness.






WATCH BY DAN "SULLY" SULLIVAN continued



how it ripples out like translucent skin.


how your legs course then surge.


how the right one swishes then ruptures the surface.


how the left follows & makes a game of each movement.


how even as your goggles fog you see your length: slick & full of grace.


how the lap markers move further & further from you.


how your bicep slips under smooth & forearm dips into the gradual deep.


how you push the water away & it still envelops you.


how powerful it is to move what feels unmovable.


how your hand slides down your side slick, back up & forward.


how it repeats.how it recurs.current.recurrent.repeat.repeat.repeat.


how it is just you, amassing the air you need.


how it is just you.


how everything here must move & then return.



SOURCE: O Body: Poems by Dan "Sully" Sullivan, Haymarket Books, Chicago, Illinois, USA, 2023, pp. 34-35.