Poems from the collection ‘Tenderness’ (Wake Forest University Press)

These poems were submitted during Loneliness Awareness Week 2026, as part of the theme Giving Loneliness a Voice.

Leopards

Last night I saw the two of us sisters.

We wore leopard-patterned coats,

laughed like we did occasionally

when I visited or she came here.

My hair was yellow, hers pink,

a breaking dawn on the horizon.

We smoked and chatted

as if nothing had changed.

But a hinged bridge between us

kept her in a cage. She chose

to stay, blinking as if blind,

me beyond clawing the green moat

as if to reach her.

Outside the hospital spring is rolling lazily

across the land up stems of weeds,

the ivies of houses through open windows.

At night the lemon-pith moon holds steady,

chlorophylls seep up soak bole and bark,

restore every cut from last year’s garden.

The moon wrings my friend’s voice to whispers.

These final hours are pitched to birdsong,

shell fragments.

The intimate sun banishes the dark.

One last time, April glides across her brow

with pre-dawn stealth