by Michelle DeRose
 |
| Trey Ganem's company, SoulShine Industries, created special caskets for 19 of the 21 victims killed at Robb Elementary School, Uvalde, Texas. |
What music accompanies a Superman coffin?
What song will waft your boy over buildings
that block your sun, black your path
with shadow? Does the melody
to lull you to sleep exist, and
will the hum of your own voice
be enough? Birdsong mocks, small
throats on spindly legs, sparrows still
in the care of their father. Where
will your boy fly now, outstretched
arms and closed fists planing so fast,
so fast,
away from you?
Michelle DeRose teaches creative writing and Irish, African-American, and world literature at Aquinas College. Some of her recent poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Midwest Quarterly, Dunes Review, Sparks of Calliope, Making Waves, and The Journal of Poetry Therapy.