warming ending what it may you persist
by Katie Naughton
the loss you cannot lose it dogs you come
up the hill at day’s pond the car blue
as sky as water we swim one side one side
pleating in the water laps the hair floats
one family has two sides one afternoon
with one aunt one second cousin who dies
out her breath my grandmother who loses
first some vision then some speech then cannot
move but not yet today the family a body
the water a closed ring closed hour around
our sound the day a closed bright thing here
inside it your thoughts blaze here inside
later a hospital room drawn as broken breath
our gone already carried in our mouths