Guidelines



Submission Guidelines: Send 1-3 unpublished poems in the body of an email (NO ATTACHMENTS) to nvneditor[at]gmail.com. No simultaneous submissions. Use "Verse News Submission" as the subject line. Send a brief bio. No payment. Authors retain all rights after 1st-time appearance here. Scroll down the right sidebar for the fine print.

Wednesday, August 10, 2022

REBOUND

by Devon Balwit




A mind in a body, we want
the body not to suffer,
but bodies must learn
 
what illness is. To avoid
unpleasantness is to leave them
vulnerable to reinfection.
 
How tempting are blister-packed
nostrums when better
is to roll in our fever sweat
 
and full inflammation, each cell
a diligent student
of never again.


Devon Balwit is trying to put her final days of isolation to good use and is crossing her fingers against her own rebound.