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 (Baltimore, MD) 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.