about the author
Sandra Irwin holds an AB in English from Vassar College, a JD from the University of
San Diego, and she is a 2009 graduate of the Master of Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern
California, where she received a full teaching fellowship. Since she graduated, seventeen of her poems and two
short fiction pieces have appeared in anderbo.com, Cold Mountain Review, The Summerset
Review, Sleet Magazine, Shot Glass Journal, and numerous other literary publications.
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Loss
Sandra Irwin
Alternative content
Not a roar, but an aching
groan, ghosts streaming through
seams in wooden doors, fracturing
windows, shifting floors. Windswept
debris shadowing a metal
sky sheltering no birds. Wax
puddling under withering
candles on tables shielding
quivering dogs. Trees crashing
to earth caught open-armed
by falling fences.
With the sun comes quiet.
Deck furniture drowned
in swimming pool. Walkway blocked,
trees bent over one another,
a third splintering both.
Ivy shriveled. Pond hammered,
bloated fish afloat.
Debris mounded in pyres
dotted with holly berries.
Uplifted trunks, multiple limbs
crudely amputated,
sign to a hollow sky.