Amy Small-McKinney

FROM A DEAD FATHER TO HIS DAUGHTER

Light lost in the mathematics 
of unknowing.

Still, 
you know still

where to look.
I am not the sky.

Not under the mat
by your front door.

Notice the songbird’s feathers,
how they reflect invisible light.

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.