Breath & Shadow
Spring 2025 - Vol. 22, Issue 2
"Dementia Gifts Rose Red the Road Untraveled"
written by
Linda Ann Strang
Christmas. Rose rambles out of the … orangery? Burdines?
Oncology wing? Into the … forest? Cinema? Hospital
chapel? Looking for … enchanted bears? Jack Lemon?
Blessings? Unfazed by … castles? End credits? Catheters?
Later, she laughs in the faces of …frantic courtiers? Usherettes?
Nurses! Smelling of … fern, she submits to bed. Mistaking me
for her sister, she says, I saw Marilyn again, in her Louis dress,
selling Opal Fruits, Klondikes. She winks. Lucky cigarettes.
Linda Ann Strang’s published poetry collections are Star Reverse and Wedding Underwear for Mermaids. Star Reverse was shortlisted for the 2023 Glenna Luschei prize for African Poetry. Her poems have appeared in New Ohio Review, Image Journal, Lily Poetry Review, and elsewhere. She teaches at Nelson Mandela University in South Africa.
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