Some Things Only Happen Once

though they can always re-occur—
the death of your daughter,

who walks down the street
in someone else’s glasses;

who, every evening now, opts
not to come home for dinner;

who lies in the casket
at every funeral;

who laughs from the seventh row
at the theater

where it’s too dark
to ever find her.

Sarah B Sullivan, of Northampton, MA, is a person, poet, physician, teacher, lesbian, ocean-lover, searcher. She is published or forthcoming in journals including Alaska Quarterly Review, Little Patuxent Review, Cider Press Review, and Switchgrass Review, and has three chapbooks. She earned a Master of Fine Arts degree at Pacific University.

Judge Rooja Mohassessy is an Iranian-born poet and educator. She is a MacDowell Fellow and an MFA graduate of Pacific University Oregon. Her debut collection When Your Sky Runs Into Mine won the 22nd Annual Elixir Poetry Award and was released by the press in February 2023. Her poems and reviews have been published in Narrative Magazine, Poet Lore, RHINO Poetry, Southern Humanities Review, CALYX Journal, Ninth Letter, Cream City Review, The Adroit Journal, New Letters, The Florida Review, Poetry Northwest, The Pinch, The Rumpus, The Journal, and elsewhere. www.roojamohassessy.com.