Drawing by Judith Wolfe
Diane Sahms-Guarniere

Poem


      MADELINE

      Madeline is suffocating.
      The caves of her eyes search fading light for
      something to cling to. She breathes
      in unison, death-rattle chorus, with

      black lungs of coal miners
      brown lungs of factory workers
      dying lungs of asbestos workers.

      Her soul excavates itself
      like a cicada tunneling out,
      shedding her chrysotile corpse,
      freeing iridescent wings for flight.


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