By Sarah Polinski
In the woods I roam
This is where I feel at home
Spring, Fall, Summer, Fun
“I am in my first year, and I’m studying dental hygiene.”
* * * * * * * * * *
“She’s in the waiting”
By Ed O’Casey
room, putting all of her energy
into staying upright.
Every cell in my body asks
me to curl into the tightest
ball possible and wink out
of existence to a pinpoint,
to bring with me the fluorescent
lights, the gravity, every grain
of dust that makes this building
a hospital, everything as it is at
this second, the last
one in which
we have two pulses.
Sometimes these things just happen—
sometimes we’re unprepared for
how the body will react.
I will collapse into
a singularity
and bring this godforsaken
building with me—when people
come here in the future, they
will find an immeasurable
pit of black that swallows their hope
before anything else.
One day, under the influence of my
own mass, a dwarf star will take shape, dispersing
itself to create a new system from
clouds of carbon. Stones, planetoids, water,
life eventually.
We’re so sorry for your loss.
[See the posting of April 13 for another poem by Ed O’Casey.]
