Palliative by Lisa Alletson

Poet name: Lisa Alletson Poem Title: Palliative Poem begins: Closing the curtain around my sister’s bed in a ward somewhere north of Exeter I fall back in time to a hailstorm in Africa. A baby dove between the bony roots of our blue gum tree. My sister pressed her ear to the chick’s chest– her long hair hiding them like a willow. Get Dad and a shoebox. Closing the curtain around my sister’s bed in a ward somewhere north of Exeter I hear my mother speak of eulogies. My father won’t remember my sister’s final breath or the prayer he said but he will remember the broken bird in an African hailstorm and why my sister decided to become a doctor that day He will remember killing the bird with a pellet gun how the other birds fell silent. End of poem. Credits and bio: Copyright © Lisa Alletson Previously published by Beyond Words Literary Magazine, June 2021. Lisa Alletson grew up in South Africa and the UK, and now lives in Toronto, Canada. She has poetry forthcoming or published in New Ohio Review, The Lumiere Review, Anti-Heroin Chic, SilverBirch Press, Bangalore Review, Beyond Words, Osmosis Press, and Dodging the Rain, among others. She writes daily on Twitter at @LotusTongue.