Forced Air
By Ellen McGrath Smith
After Robert Hayden When she still tried to entertain over holidays, before she gave up on pretending things were normal, she’d often choose a night he worked and set to cleaning house and placing little bowls of snacks around, begging us to please not eat them, giving us tasks we probably didn’t complete. There was a glimmering lull before the first guest arrived, the tree still lit though school had started up again. We were on our best behavior for her sake, and once her friends were all amassed in a crush of perfume and whiskey sours, would hang on the stairs and ledges of the night the way angels are shown to lounge on clouds, waiting for something to go terribly wrong, willing the air (in the ineffectual way of angels) to shine.
Ellen McGrath Smith‘s poetry has appeared in The Georgia Review, The New York Times, The American Poetry Review, Talking Writing, Los Angeles Review, and other journals and anthologies. Books include Scatter, Feed (Seven Kitchens 2014) and Nobody’s Jackknife (West End Press 2015). Her chapbook Lie Low, Goaded Lamb was published in January 2023 by Seven Kitchens Press as part of its Keystone Series.
01/08 / Poetry Reading and Conversation with visiting poet-in-residence Rita Mookerjee & local poet Madison Miller / The BBar at The Betsy-South Beach, Miami Beach, FL / Live and Live-Streamed on Instagram Live/Facebook Live at @swwimmiami / 7-8:30 pm EST / Free
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God, that's gorgeous.
Love this!