by Erin Murphy

The valve that narrows between your brother’s
lungs and heart, how he joked that stenosis
sounds like a dinosaur. Your cousin’s eczema: 
patchwork quilt of flaking scabs. Flat feet. 
Allergy to wheat. Fibroids: clusters of birthday
party balloons for baby who never came to be. 
Always waiting to metastasize: grief.

Erin Murphy’s eighth book of poems, Human Resources, is forthcoming from Salmon Poetry. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Georgia Review, Southern Poetry Review, Women’s Studies Quarterly, and elsewhere. Her awards include The Normal School Poetry Prize, the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Prize, and a Best of the Net award. She is Professor of English at Penn State Altoona and serves as Poetry Editor of The Summerset Review. Website: erin-murphy.com