Kevin Simmonds

Excerpt from Anthology Vol 1, No 2

song for a stillborn
(for Jennifer)

you thought you were losing me in a peculiar eclipse.
our singular radiance became uncertain,
awash, in a paucity of light.

push
all around.

and you,
pressing close to me, and pressing
close to me, and pressing close
to me.

losing
in a belly of tears
and I didn’t know.

sweet,
i felt you moist and alive
but too near to manage life.

you gave up and so
you weren’t given
but remain in me
received.

Author Bio
Kevin M. Simmonds studied music and writing at Vanderbilt University, Mills College and Middle Tennessee State University. His writings have appeared or are forthcoming in Black Bear Review, Haight-Ashbury Literary Journal, Folio: A Literary Journal, and the anthology Beyond the Frontier, among others. He teaches in Tono, Japan.