Jill Michelle
Jill Michelle’s honors include a Best of the Net nomination for the title poem of her debut collection, Underwater (Riot in Your Throat, 2025), and the 2023 NORward Prize. Her latest poems appear/are forthcoming in Black Coffee Review, Drunk Monkeys, Lips Poetry Magazine and Poetry Breakfast. She teaches at Valencia College in Orlando, Florida. Find more of her work at byjillmichelle.com.
Watching a Second Father with Alzheimer’s
So many mannerisms
the same
the distant stare
mind’s chalkboard
erased
or perhaps
replaced
by the movie stream
of memories
on a screen
we just can’t see
yet—off there
in the distance
waiting.
He floats back
to the rest of us
at the dinner table
all apologies
the tallest toddler
in Texas Roadhouse
with the same
innocent beauty—
goo-ing and gah-ing
over his first
great-granddaughter
her three-month
gummy smile
gurgling replies
their contagious
laughter.
