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 six full-length books of poetry include If Only There Were Stations of the Air (Sheila-Na-Gig Editions, 2024), Groaning and Singing (FutureCycle, 2022), Bird Flying through the Banquet (FutureCycle, 2017) and Shimmer (WordTech, 2012). Her third chapbook, Oh Memory, You Unlocked Cabinet of Amazements!, was released by Bamboo Dart in June, 2024. Apartness: A Memoir in Essays and Poems, will be published by Inlandia Books in early 2025. Judy’s poems have appeared in Cider Press Review, Gyroscope Review, MacQueen’s Quinterly, New Ohio Review, Offcourse, One (Jacar Press), One Art, Rattle, Sheila-Na-Gig, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Verdad and other journals.
Only with Dearest Friends…
We’re telling anecdotes about short-lived
pets, at a table in the bagel shop, when the wife,
after a bite of her “everything” bagel
with lox, reveals—as her husband stuffs his fingers
in his ears—that she keeps three dead
parakeets in cardboard boxes in her
fridge’s freezer compartment, and he mutters
ya open the door with a pack of chicken thighs
in your hands, and there’s no place to put ’em!
My husband, his face crumpling, stamps his foot
on the floor and all four of us guffaw
until our wrinkles wrinkle, and our stomachs ache
and I feel as unleashed as I did seven decades past
in third grade, when some kid farted
really loud, just after the teacher turned
to the blackboard saying, “Pay attention now,”
and the class, farter included,
erupted in howls and shrieks.
“Are—you—waiting—for—the resurrection?”
I gasp, barely getting the words out,
and we wail till tears sting our eyes.
But I understand, because we simply can’t
imagine—after hopping out of our
cages, like Chirpy, Hootie, and Sweetie,
after fluttering about, after whistling
our happy tunes, after bonding again—
being buried in dirt.
