Ann E. Wallace, a poet and essayist from Jersey City, New Jersey, is author of the poetry collection Counting by Sevens (Main Street Rag). She has previously published work in Clementine Unbound, as well as in Crack the Spine, Riggwelter, Snapdragon, and other journals. She is online at AnnWallacePhD.com and on Twitter @annwlace409.
Sounds Will Carry
We have pulled at thin air and breathed
in the shallows, hungry, our hearts
and lungs ablaze, commanded ourselves
to breathe, and breathe some more.
Our breath sounds swallowed
by the wail of sirens, on and on, the fear
stuck in our throats has now crescendoed
into the guttural cries of a nation in grief.
But we have laughed
as we have cried.
And we will laugh
and we will cry some more.
And the sounds will carry us,
like calling cards of the lost and bereft,
across the bridges and through the cities
in search of each other.
Clementine Unbound 