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Tuesday, January 01, 2013

AFTER

by Shirley J. Brewer



                 — Want to help Newtown? Donations, yes. Teddy bears, no.
                         West Hartford News, December 26, 2012


A thousand brand new toys
fill this Newtown warehouse
stuffed with grief from far away.

In a house of loss, parents hug
one old teddy bear—
the fur loved off its face.


Shirley J. Brewer (BaltimoreMD) is a poet, educator, and workshop facilitator. Her poetry has appeared in The Cortland Review, Comstock Review, Passager, New Verse News, Innisfree Poetry Journal, and other publications. Her poetry chapbook, A Little Breast Music, was published in 2008 by Passager Books. A second book of poems, After Words, is forthcoming in early 2013 from Apprentice House/Loyola University.