I'm very pleased to share that my poem "Sweet Potato Elegy" has been published in the May 18, 2018 issue of Commonweal Magazine, available online here! Here's a teaser:
I used to think a tumor like a stone
or tuber could be lifted from the land
it lodged in. This was not so. Sweet orange flesh
of future bloom, you'll spread your steaming funk
for us tomorrow if I tend you well . . . (read)
image from Elements of Agriculture, for Use in Schools, 1903
This poem is written in memory of my grandmother Marcene Linstrom, who passed away from lung cancer several years ago. It's also my first-ever paid publication, which I'm sure would make Grandma glow with pride. Many thanks to those who read this piece and provided feedback, including my brother Sam who gave it a dramatic reading on the lawn outside of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's house in Cambridge, and to Zane and Kate who hosted the Canadian Thanksgiving feast that inspired me to write it!