All in by Jill Michelle

Loss

SWWIM Every Day
by Jill Michelle

by Jill Michelle



‍ ‍n. Privation of that which we had, or had not.
‍ ‍—Ambrose Bierce‍ ‍


It seems I am practicing loss
how to become lacework’s hollow
the hundred empty spots that bloom
beauty across blemished facades.

Year squandered, embroidered in grief—
I am practicing loss, it seems—
wrestling chain-stitched memories of
uncovering his cheating, rings

of purpling fingerprints that
mean I can never take him back,
am practicing loss. It seems I
turned disposable camera

sun yellow box, reflecting his
image, then tossed, like our vows each
time he lied, phoned her instead of
practicing. It seems I am lost.

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Jill Michelle is the author of Underwater (Riot in Your Throat, 2025) and Shuffle Play (Bottlecap, 2024) as well as winner of the 2023 NORward Prize for Poetry from New Ohio Review. Her newest work is forthcoming in The Meadow, RHINO Poetry, and Stanchion Magazine. She teaches at Valencia College in Orlando, Florida. See byjillmichelle.com.

Lost Pantoum

SWWIM Every Day
by Jill Michelle

by Jill Michelle


Now you can’t find your sentences.
Are they hidden in the ice box  
where once we looked for treasures: 
your keys, remote, glasses, watch?  

Are they hidden in the ice box  
forgotten on the office desk like 
your keys, remote, glasses, watch? 
Will we ever finish unearthing things  

forgotten on the office desk like 
that legal pad, the novel you began? 
Will we ever finish unearthing things— 
syllables strewn, verbs tossed?  

That legal pad, the novel you began 
slipping into Alzheimer’s grip— 
syllables strewn, verbs tossed 
just ghost notes, punctuated loss.  

Slipping into Alzheimer’s grip 
now you can’t find your sentences— 
just ghost notes, punctuated loss 
where once we looked for treasures. 

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Jill Michelle's latest poems appear/are forthcoming in DMQ Review, Tipton Poetry Journal, Gyroscope Review, Funicular Magazine, and Drunk Monkeys. Recent anthology credits include The Book of Bad Betties (Bad Betty Press, UK) and Words from the Brink (Arachne Press Limited, UK). She teaches at Valencia College in Orlando, Florida. Find more of her work at byjillmichelle.com.