Mourning Dove

Paul Martin

The thud against the window
rushes Rita outside to find it,
its small, round head drooping
loosely when she picks it up.
Countless deaths in the world,
but it’s this one, held in her hand,
that we mourn, stroking its warm breast,
its dark eyes still open
that just a moment ago saw
a clear passage of light.

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May 9, 2018

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Paul Martin is the author of Closing Distances (Backwaters Press, 2009) and five chapbooks. His new book, Mourning Dove, is forthcoming in 2018 from Comstock Writers Group. He lives in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

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Southern Poetry Review

Issue 55, Number 2

Savannah, Georgia

Editor
James Smith

Associate Editor
Tony Morris

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Southern Poetry Review is the second oldest poetry journal in the region, with its origins in Florida and subsequent moves to North Carolina and now Georgia. Continuing the tradition of editorial openness and response to writers that began with Guy Owen in 1958, SPR publishes poems from all over the country as well as from abroad and maintains a worldwide readership. Past issues feature work from Chana Bloch, Billy Collins, Alice Friman, David Hernandez, Andrew Hudgins, Maxine Kumin, Heather McHugh, Sue William Silverman, R. T. Smith, Eric Trethewey, and Cecilia Woloch.

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