The Waiting Room

Let’s take a look into the room
where the dead wait to be born again—
The absolute boredom of it.
It is a room inside the castle of string theory,
where no nouns exist, only verbs—passive
in this case: looking, hovering, being (but only sort of).
The room is a tree, shimmering a little in light breeze.
A tree which, at dusk, turns into a flock of green parakeets lifting.

About the Author

Danielle Hanson is the author of Fraying Edge of Sky (Codhill Press Poetry Prize, 2018) and Ambushing Water (Brick Road Poetry Press, 2017). Her work has appeared in over 80 journals, won the Vi Gale Award from Hubbub, was Finalist for 2018 Georgia Author of the Year Award and was nominated for several Pushcarts and Best of the Nets. She is Poetry Editor for Doubleback Books, and is on the staff of the Atlanta Review. Her poetry has been the basis for visual art included in the exhibit EVERLASTING BLOOM at the Hambidge Center Art Gallery, and Haunting the Wrong House, a puppet show at the Center for Puppetry Arts. More about her at daniellejhanson.com.