by Catherine Zickgraf

We were empty-eyed cinder blocks,
ringed keys unlocking the doorknobs.

Among junior high’s sleepy congregation,
an audience of our class’s generation,
only some of us showed up praised and amen-ed.

School taught me typing for college essays
and gave me chances to run away.

We’d flood from the school at 3:05—
but only some return now for mid-life toasts.

Just listen up for the morning announcement:
we cannot know life while it lives so close.
&

Catherine Zickgraf

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Catherine Zickgraf has performed her poetry in her hometown of Augusta, Georgia and beyond. Her work has appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Pank, Victorian Violet Press and The Grief Diaries. Her recent chapbook, Soul Full of Eye, is published through Aldrich Press.

Artist: Mohamed Sobeha