Don’t Ask Why. Poems by Michelle Ortega, selected by Ron Mohring as Number One in Volume Eight of our Summer Kitchen Chapbook Series.

Release date:  August 31, 2020 [49 copies]
23 pages
$ 9.00

Cover image: 19th c. antique indigo quilting cotton. 

Marcescence

No rain falls with the storm, but energy whips through branches,
pares away the brittle, scrubs bark to awaken buds. Fallen meets
bloom with pentecostal chaos. The view from my bed, this new
mid-day softness (healthy in the pandemic)–my own breath, a dryad
whisper. Earth never stopped this song; only now am I still enough
to hear it.

No words to pray, but each breath drawn beyond my lungs offered
for those who step into the next life (unheld, unseen). For those who
cling like dry leaves on a tree through winter. For those bent in the
storm who do not break, but care for the ones who fall.

• Limited edition: only 24 copies available. Order yours here!