Amy Small-McKinney

WITHOUT—

Where are you?
Bird or air? Cloud of ice crystals?
Or a random word like prayer repeated
as I check-recheck a locked door. 

Want to believe in
grass’s greener edges before they dry 
left over busily fading
smothered in egret snow.

I am a blade of doubt 
though I want to say oh gorgeous
want to say if the next song 
is about love 
I live another day.

Amy Small-McKinney’s second book of poems, Walking Toward Cranes, won the Kithara Book Prize 2016 (Glass Lyre Press). Her poetry has appeared in numerous journals, for example, Baltimore Review, Pedestal Review, Inflectionist Review, and SWWIM. Small-McKinney was twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize this year. Her poems have also been translated into Korean (Cross-Communications Press) and Romanian (Olimpia Iacob). Her book reviews have been published by journals, such as Prairie Schooner and Matter. Small-McKinney's current manuscript, Unpracticed Bodies Come Apart, was a 2019 finalist with both Barrow Street and Trio House Presses. She resides in Philadelphia.