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Sandra Rivers-Gill

In the Throat of a Tree

            After a line in Rachel Eliza Griffiths’ poem “Whipping Tree”

If given in small doses
death will weigh down the throat.

Drowning is tied to a shoulder blade
of gravity. Wait. Hate is as heavy as a fan,

as widespread as contagion is furious.
Heat is compressed until something snaps.

In certain trees there are tangled knots.
The furcula can no longer be wished upon.

Luminous stars are what I dream beneath.
The map of my interior landscape is an emergency. 

A response is an urgent call to escape.
Eager hands are hidden wager in abet.

Barbed wire is the accomplice to a bullet
as a bluesy sidewalk is to scat.

If given in just, harmless doses
air will weigh in on its own existence.

Felled trees are premeditated.
The evidence is a burning forest.

Embers scatter to the wind of jive.
The sound of timber is in different ears.

A mother knows the grave of her child’s cry.  
It sounds like a dose of less wait.

Until she mourns the loss of lullabies
she will cradle the song of every breached tree.

Biography

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Sandra Rivers-Gill is an Ohio native. She is a poet, writer, and playwright and performed her first one woman show in 2020. Her work has appeared in or is forthcoming in Dissonance Magazine, POP UP Poetry, The Kerf, Of Rust and Glass, Common Threads, Flights, and Mock Turtle Zine and has received numerous writing awards from Lourdes University Poetry Jam, Toledo Museum of Art Ekphrastic Writing, Toledo City Paper Ode to the Zip Code, and Promedica Revealing Hunger Spoken Word Competitions. In addition to her work as a panel judge for local poetry competitions, Sandra has served as a board member for Naomi Inc., and poetry workshop facilitator for non-profit organizations in her community. She is the editor of “Dopeless Hope Fiends,” and is a recipient of the Toledo Arts Commission Accelerator Grant. Sandra is a Master of Liberal Studies candidate at the University of Toledo. More about the writer at sandrariversgill.com.
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  • Home
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  • Issues
    • Issue 49
    • Issue 48
    • Issue 47
    • Issue 46
    • Issue 45
    • Issue 44
    • Issue 43
    • Issue 42
    • Issue 41
    • Issue 40
    • Issue 39
    • Issue 38
    • Issue 37
    • Issue 36
    • Issue 35
    • Issue 34
    • Issue 33
    • Issue 32
    • Issue 31
    • Issue 30
    • Issue 29
    • Issue 28
    • Issue 27
    • Issue 26
    • Issue 25
    • Issue 24
    • Issue 23
    • Issue 22
    • Issue 21
    • Issue 20
    • Issue 19
    • Issue 18
    • Serenity
    • Issue 17
    • The Audio Room
    • Issue 16
    • Issue 15
    • Issue 14
    • Play It Again
    • Issue 13
    • Issue 12
    • Issue 11
    • Issue 10
    • Issue 9
    • Issue 8
    • Issue 7
    • Issue 6
    • Hand to Mouth
    • Issue 5
    • Issue 4
    • Issue 3
    • Issue 2
    • Issue 1
  • Submissions