Nat Bottigheimer

Nat Bottigheimer is an urban planner who works in Trenton, New Jersey. After about 30 years in urban planning, he began writing poetry seriously.  His work has appeared in Canary, Poetica, The Journal of New Jersey Poets, Stillwater Review, and elsewhere. In January 2025, Nat enrolled in the Low Residency MFA program in creative writing at Bennington College.

The Old Y (POEM)

I toured a building today that has potential.

We could see past the stripped wires,

subterranean chill, and explosions of sheetrock

dropped from damp shapes in the ceiling.

Good bones; street presence; light courses

through the upper floors. The structure

could be repurposed but, I doubt, lungs

crinkling like emptied chip bags, what will we do

with the mounds of bedding and sacks of sweaters?

can we clear the stains? fade the image of syringes

scattered like pencils amidst the dirt

and crisped vomit spatter? Before we entered,

a man on the street said “You need a lamp

it’s pitch black in the basement,

I lived there for two years it is what it is.”