New Poetry by Rachel Nolan

Pan-Tomb

Does grief transform? Into what? 

There is a controlling and condensing of language,

a welling-up,

a regurgitated mass.

There is a controlling and condensing of language 

indescribable and useless to us, 

a regurgitated mass 

of dead leaves and teeth 

indescribable and useless to us. 

No lesson was taught 

of dead leaves and teeth 

and then some kind of Something Else. 

No lesson was taught,

a welling-up 

and then some kind of Something Else. 

Does grief transform? Into what?

- © Rachel Nolan 2021

Rachel Nolan holds a BA in poetry from Hampshire College, edits for Green Writers Press, and is managing editor for Millennial Pulp Literary Magazine. Past accomplishments include being a finalist in jubilat’s Make a Chapbook Competition in 2017, as well as being a finalist for Heavy Feather’s Zachary Doss Friends in Letters Memorial Fellowship in 2020. Rachel’s work has most recently appeared in Tilde, Trouvaille Review, Second Chance Lit, and Beyond Words Literary Magazine, among others.