Poetry
Into the ER, We Rush
into the river of her passing
she is almost nearly but not quite
gone from this place
the doctors have nothing to offer
we feel like addicts caught
in a trap of no veins no veins at all
and my useless friend tells me
that sometimes you must even condemn
a good building—what the hell
is the logic of that?
I turn from his mouth-cramp
and into the long pause of a thunderstorm
of a sudden silent hospital dark
the river of her passing
By Susan April
“Into the ER, We Rush” was published in the Medical Literary Messenger: An Artistic Voice for the Healing Arts is a Virginia Commonwealth University on-line and print journal p. 31
NEW “Drift”
“This poem was sourced from the classic science textbook Hitchcock’s Elementary Geology, a text used by both Henry David Thoreau and Emily Dickinson. My process involved a close reading of Section I, “A General Account of the Constitution and Structure of the Earth and of the Principles on Which Rocks are Classified,” and Section III, “Lithological Characters of the Stratified Rocks.” I made lists of key phrases and was struck by the sensual language that at times recalled a love letter or a forlorn postcard. “Drift” was created from such lifted phrases with linking words of my own.”
See “Drift” at Heron Tree an online poetry journal.
Poems Published
Susan reading “Drift” and other poems at Sky Stage in Frederick Maryland - May 9, 2023
More Poems
Adanna Literary Journal: Mothering in a Pandemic: “Dear Quinn”
Albatross: “Oklahoma”
A Tether to This World: Stories and Poems About Recovery, “Truth Be Told” (“Priscilla Marie”)
Beat Scene, “End of Track”
Blink Ink, “With Jack at the Paradise Diner,” “Whose There?” “Cupples Square Diner"
French Class: French Canadian-American Writings on Identity, Culture, and Place:
“A Little Family History,”
“How to Grow Roses,”
“La Survivance,”
“Laying to Rest,”
“Street French.”
Heliotrope: French Heritage Women Create: “Fouilleuse”
Literary Lowell: The Richard Howe blog: “End of Track”
Medical Literary Messenger: An Artistic Voice for the Healing Arts: “Into the ER, We Rush”
Merrimack: A Poetry Anthology: “La Survivance,” “A Little Family History”
Mid/South Sonnets: “Fatality #9"
Nuclear Impact: Broken Atoms in Our Hands: An Anthology of Poetry: “this happened”
Sing Heavenly Muse!: “What I Do For A Living”
The 11th Muse: “In My Wallet, A Warm Stone”
The Iowa Source, “Water Witching”
Tiny Seed Literary Journal: “Club Moss”
Visions: A Journal of International Poetry: “Egress”