EVEN IN AN EMERGENCY, BY CHELSEA DINGMAN

​You stand before me & demand attention.
It has been winter for years.
It has been years since I could breathe

               without fear. All of the doors flung open,
               spring will demand everything we have.
               Who am I to wish anyone gone

at a time like this? My brother, leaving rehab early.
The world, collapsing. Our children, friendless.
I was going to be someone else once.

               The world, ruled by weather, by markets.
               At the market yesterday, I was afraid
               of my own hands as they rose to cover

our daughter in her car seat. Where will we end
the year? It will, of course, be winter.
We will, of course, be lonely.

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Chelsea Dingman's first book, Thaw, was chosen by Allison Joseph to win the National Poetry Series (University of Georgia Press, 2017). Her second book, Through a Small Ghost, won The Georgia Poetry Prize (University of Georgia Press, 2020). Other writing can be found in The Southern Review, The New England Review, and The Kenyon Review, among others.