An Elegy for Thousands

There is a murmur of faraway rain and we are

small in sleep’s corner, breath of the dog 

dreaming a field and running—

there is time in a tin cup turned over 

while all across the world’s steady body 

souls press toward any window of release

any open door, any open, oh—



let’s not open our eyes right now, let’s wander 

down the tunnel sleep carved from our breathing 

break into sunlight warm as a hand 

on someone’s forehead, song after song 

of the untouched departed, how they keep ahead of us flying—

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Lisa Zimmerman’s writing has appeared in Redbook, The Sun, Poet Lore, Amethyst Review, SWWIM Every Day, and other journals. Her first book won the Violet Reed Haas Poetry Award. Others include The Light at the Edge of Everything (Anhinga Press) and The Hours I Keep (Main Street Rag). Her poems have been nominated for Best of the Net, five times for the Pushcart Prize, and included in the 2020 Best Small Fictions anthology. She lives in Colorado.