by Kindra McDonald

It's #tbt! Enjoy this great one from SWWIM Every Day's archives!

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How long is the longest breath
you can hold? How long the grudge  

of silence? How do you fight buoyancy 
so well? Swelling your lungs with birdshot—  

The slow rain bends the stems 
of the tall weeds like piano keys.  

In the steeple of your hands we lean in again  

of the tall weeds like piano keys 
the slow rain bends the stems  

so well swelling your lungs with birdshot 
of silence, how do you fight buoyancy?  

You can hold, how long the grudge, 
how long is the longest breath? 

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Kindra McDonald is the author of the collections Teaching a Wild Thing, Fossils, and In the Meat Years and the chapbooks Elements and Briars and Concealed Weapons. She was the recipient of the 2020 Haunted Waters Press Poetry Award. She received her MFA from Queens University of Charlotte and is a poet-artist working in mixed-media and found poetry and a Teaching Artist at The Muse Writers Center in Norfolk, VA. She served as the Poetry Society of Virginia Southeastern region Vice President from 2019-2022. You can find her in the woods or at kindramcdonald.com.

by Kindra McDonald

Heaven
is the moon swinging
hand under hand
just to hug the ground
with light strong as knots

Bright egg
dance gingerly
dance delirious
a swan drowned
a half thigh
a lemon pout
moon a lit firefly hum
in my ear

This is a found poem using erasure from pages 260-264 of Andrews, V. C. Flowers in the Attic: the Dollanganger Family Series # 1. Pocket Books, 1979.

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Kindra McDonald is the author of the poetry collections Fossils (Finishing Line Press) and In the Meat Years (Aldrich Press), both in 2019, and the chapbooks Concealed Weapons (2015) and Elements and Briars (2016). She received her MFA from Queens University of Charlotte and her BA from Virginia Wesleyan University. Her work has appeared in Rise Up Review, Twyckenham Notes, Muddy River Poetry Review, the anthology The Nearest Poem, and elsewhere. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and for Bettering American Poetry. She lives in the city of mermaids with her husband and cats where she bakes, hikes, and changes hobbies monthly.

by Kindra McDonald

How long is the longest breath

you can hold? How long the grudge

of silence? How do you fight buoyancy

so well? Swelling your lungs with birdshot—

The slow rain bends the stems

of the tall weeds like piano keys.

In the steeple of your hands we lean in again

of the tall weeds like piano keys

the slow rain bends the stems

so well swelling your lungs with birdshot

of silence, how do you fight buoyancy?

You can hold, how long the grudge,

how long is the longest breath?

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Kindra McDonald received her MFA from Queens University of Charlotte. She is an adjunct writing professor and doctoral student. Her work has appeared in Rise up Review, Plainsongs and others. She is the author of the chapbooks Concealed Weapons (ELJ Publications, 2015) and Elements and Briars (Redbird Chapbooks, 2016). Her full-length book, Fossils, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press. She lives with her husband in Coastal Virginia where she bakes and wrangles cats.