Current
Issue
Fall 2026 / Volume 13.1
Alison Palmer
—
We Go Quietly, the Aftermath
A line of feral dogs
up from the ocean
in front of me repeat a broken refrain.
Shivers of laurel stretch
across a sky meant to weave the next crown.
Persephone’s birds raise
from the ground,
slumbering victims of the end of the world.
I tend to the dogs as I would
my father’s bees, black pall over the hives of their eyes.
Alison Palmer is the author of four poetry collections, including, Bargaining with the Fall and The Offing (Broadstone Books). Alison’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in Hanging Loose Press, The Cincinnati Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Cimarron, Rogue Agent, and Columbia Poetry Review, among many others. She was the recipient of a 2022 Maryland State Arts Council Independent Artist Award and a finalist for the 2026 New Letters Patricia Cleary Miller Award for Poetry. Currently, Alison lives in Japan, where she was recently stationed with her wife. Visit www.alisonpalmer.org for more information.
