Twice
adv. Once too often.
—Ambrose Bierce
For a second time this year
our marriage bed becomes
a collage of child loss
sea of rectangular pads
dotted in carmine-colored
spots that start small
as a copperhead’s bite
then bloom, parachute
into crimson ocean. I dive
in therapy through the village
of our buried griefs
bemoan the bony hopes
stacked like worm-rotted
lumber in a faithless yard
where women in my family
have for three centuries now
felt the call for children
gotten funerals in return.
About Jill Michelle
Jill Michelle is the author of Underwater (Riot in Your Throat, 2025) and Shuffle Play (Bottlecap, 2024) and winner of the 2023 NORward Prize for Poetry. Her newest work is forthcoming in The Florida Review, The Indianapolis Review, Pangyrus Lit Mag and Sinking City. She teaches at Valencia College in Orlando, Florida. Find more at byjillmichelle.com.
Twice
adv. Once too often.
—Ambrose Bierce
For a second time this year
our marriage bed becomes
a collage of child loss
sea of rectangular pads
dotted in carmine-colored
spots that start small
as a copperhead’s bite
then bloom, parachute
into crimson ocean. I dive
in therapy through the village
of our buried griefs
bemoan the bony hopes
stacked like worm-rotted
lumber in a faithless yard
where women in my family
have for three centuries now
felt the call for children
gotten funerals in return.
Twice
adv. Once too often.
—Ambrose Bierce
For a second time this year
our marriage bed becomes
a collage of child loss
sea of rectangular pads
dotted in carmine-colored
spots that start small
as a copperhead’s bite
then bloom, parachute
into crimson ocean. I dive
in therapy through the village
of our buried griefs
bemoan the bony hopes
stacked like worm-rotted
lumber in a faithless yard
where women in my family
have for three centuries now
felt the call for children
gotten funerals in return.
About Jill Michelle
Jill Michelle is the author of Underwater (Riot in Your Throat, 2025) and Shuffle Play (Bottlecap, 2024) and winner of the 2023 NORward Prize for Poetry. Her newest work is forthcoming in The Florida Review, The Indianapolis Review, Pangyrus Lit Mag and Sinking City. She teaches at Valencia College in Orlando, Florida. Find more at byjillmichelle.com.
