Judy Kronenfeld
If Only There Were Stations of the Air
by Judy Kronenfeld
ISBN: 978-1-962405-01-0
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Judy Kronenfeld’s sixth full-length book of poetry is If Only There Were Stations of the Air (Sheila-Na-Gig, 2024), and her third chapbook is Oh Memory, You Unlocked Cabinet of Amazements (Bamboo Dart, 2024). Her poems have appeared in such journals as Cider Press Review, MacQueen’s Quinterly, New Ohio Review, One Art, Rattle, Sheila-Na-Gig, Valparaiso Poetry Review and Verdad. Judy has also published criticism, including King Lear and the Naked Truth (Duke, 1998), short stories, and creative nonfiction. Her memoir-in-essays-and-poems, Apartness, was published in early 2025 by Inlandia Books. She lives in Riverside, California, with her anthropologist husband.
Inevitably Belated Consolation
How rapidly the nests of care disintegrate.
She disappeared from view, but now we know
our cousin’s buried in an unmarked grave.
She fell into the cold arms of the state—
no parent, child, or spouse to whom to go.
How soon the nest of care disintegrates.
Although one nurse took pity on her state
in 16 friendless years with those who’ve blown
their minds, our cousin molders in an unmarked grave.
Does memory require a demarcated place?
A bench? A tree? At least a marker, flat, alone?
Can’t be, since families disintegrate.
New guests may turn out those in labeled graves.
Some day we all will whirl with trees and stones—
although not buried in those unmarked places.
Yet we imagine markers freeze the fading—
as if all generations aren’t overthrown.
Dear lost cousin—later or sooner care disintegrates.
Dust monuments kiss dust, are unmarked graves.
