In this week’s poem, “Nothing is wrong,” Kate Horowitz describes a tenant’s leaking apartment and her landlord’s negligent response – and in such a way that we might also see it as a metaphor for larger problems of climate and our leaders’ response. I love this poem’s epic description of the storms and seeping rains, and the emphatic, pointed irony of the title and final lines.

Horowitz is a poet, essayist and science writer in South Portland. Her poems have appeared in Rogue Agent, Doubleback Review, Qu and many others. She likes moss and thunderstorms and dancing and little bats with big ears. She lives by the sea.

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. You’ll find a link to submit in the credits below.

Nothing is wrong

with the windows, my landlord
declares. The windows are functioning
exactly as windows should. That it is raining
in the living room, the bedroom, the kitchen,
that the cold contents of each sill pour indoors
with every storm – this is not a problem
of windows, he tells me, but of rain. Extraordinary
circumstances, the email says, as though
it has never rained here before
or will again, as though the tempest
is not gathering strength, as though
the ravenous tongue of the sea is not
reaching toward the foundations.

I understand. Nothing is wrong.
Or if it is, it is nobody’s fault
but my own, for living
in a place where it rains.

— Kate Horowitz

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. “Nothing is wrong,” copyright 2024 by Kate Horowitz, 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.