1. How can I pour the ocean of sorrow into the small cup of my heart?

2. The question for today’s year—so much pain—Ukraine, COVID, my sister’s miscarriage.

3. How or why, to hold the grief wrapping me like ground fog on a summer’s day?

4. I lie down and picture anger-red leaving my body, flowing out my feet—oozing into empathetic air.

5. On every morning run, I feel the red-hot specter wisp out my nostrils, then lag further and further behind—smoke from a blown-out match.

6. But tomorrow brings new news, and a cup that must be unfilled again.

Gary Grossman

is Professor Emeritus of Animal Ecology at University of Georgia. His poetry is published in 30+ venues, including Verse-Virtual, Your Daily Poem, Poetry Life and Times, Poetica, Trouvaille Review, MacQueen’s Quinterly, Poetry Superhighway, Muddy River Poetry Review, The Knot, Delta Poetry Review, and Delta Poetry Review; his creative nonfiction, in Tamarind Literary Magazine; and his short fiction, in MacQueen’s Quinterly.

His first book of poems, Lyrical Years, is forthcoming in 2023 from Kelsay Press, and his graphic novel, My Life in Fish: One Scientist’s Journey, is available from http://www.garygrossman.net/my-life-in-fish-one-scientists-journey/. Hobbies include running, music, fishing, and gardening.

Author’s website: www.garygrossman.net

And his writing blog: https://garydavidgrossman.medium.com/