when the blood all coagulates with the dust, 
the crushed concrete and bomb-cracked 
aspirations, alveoli clotted with dreams 
seared out of the sky, burned in 
to a child’s flesh, the flashing 
answer to a million prayers. 

Lael Ewy

writes mainly about skunks with occasional forays into everything else. He lives in Wichita, Kansas, teaches at Hutchinson Community College, and has published EastWesterly Review, an online journal of literature and satire, since 1999. His poetry has appeared in Chelsea, Denver Quarterly, and New Orleans Review, and has been anthologized in Troubles Swapped for Something Fresh. His prose has appeared at Mad In America, and his chapbook, Of Grace’s Resounding Caws, was published by Knotted Road Press in 2018.