Laurinda Lind
Laurinda Lind lives in New York’s North Country. Some publications/acceptances are in Blue Earth Review, Comstock Review, New American Writing, Paterson Literary Review, and Radius; also anthologies Visiting Bob: Poems Inspired by the Life and Work of Bob Dylan (New Rivers Press) and AFTERMATH: Explorations of Loss and Grief (Radix Media). In 2018, she won first place in both the Keats-Shelley Prize for adult poetry and the New York State Fair poetry competition.
Chick
Sequence in sepia ten years ago,
my daughter’s principal patiently bent
over an egg that warmed for weeks
in the classroom corner. He, its midwife,
chipping steadily as an archaeologist
to free the weakened duck. The circle
of kindergarteners breathing with him, ring
of hope around the battered desk. Then
the collective falling back when the soul
released rolled out, greybrown stone,
stillborn-stopped into their fragile lives.
Tonight when at fourteen she explains
that she needs to live with her father
now, what is wrung from me, no
less wrong, broken open, broken
out–this deadened thing, and its wings.
Sheila-Na-Gig online 