She called me to pick her up, but by the time I drove to the block,/ three men in total pandemic suits were walking her out.
Think your lungs a forest cleared./ Your breath winged/ as if it had a better place to go
…Any other day/ I might give up & swallow every sound/ I could utter. Not today…
At the end, my father took four,/ long, calm breaths and died.
Woke gnawing its remains. Air/ had the brackish tinge of depths I had/ all night been swimming in.
Ingeborg Riedmaier reads “The Department Store Badger,” a poem by Rachel Dragos
These lone fires will never die out/ the roses still stagger in the embers;
Lost in the midnight stillness, my mother/ rises to dress and begin another/ chilly day. She crosses the moonlit floor.
Jane Bradley and Chris Henry Coffey read four poems from BLR Issue 29,