Today’s New Verse News: HOW DO YOU DEFINE AN ENDING?
by Mark Danowsky
“Never-Ending Road” painting by Elizabeth Kenney
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After three years, The New York Times announces that close coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic is coming to an end.
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What has ended, I wonder, And what has not? So many with prolonged illness Know the battle rages on And those soon to fall ill And those who will fall ill I count myself Among the lucky Recall my sureness That I would not survive Of course, few foresee The deft hand of death His scythe, at times, the edge Of visible—a bullet Stops the heart Without just cause The needle droops In a useless arm Tires spin on ice And metal crushes metal A cloud opens up For tears to flood
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Mark Danowsky is Editor-in-Chief of ONE ART: a journal of poetry. He is author of the poetry collections As Falls Trees (NightBallet Press), JAWN (Moonstone Press), Violet Flame (tiny wren lit), and Meatless (Plan B Press). Recent poems in Red Ogre Review, Green Ink Review, The Broadkill Review, anti-heroin chic, Harpy Hybrid Review, Otoliths, and elsewhere.