A woman whispers the alphabet
into a balled-up coat. Somewhere
in the letters, a code that could click
open the sky and God would drop down
and breathe life into the dead, paralyze
the enemy, restore the linens and dishes,
return the keys, apologize.
Linda Hillringhouse was a first-place winner of the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Award (2014) and the second-place winner of Nimrod’s Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry (2012). She has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.
A Quiet Courage 