POETRYSleeping in the Closet in the StormMartina Reisz Newberry
Some children are born fearing death.
They skip the I-Am-Immortal
phases of immaturity,
embrace instead the surety
that death will not abandon them.
The crude ballroom dancing, the shells
and feathers and chanting are shock
therapy to these small, knowing
spirits. They know to eat when
hungry, lie down when tired, give in
when beaten. The thing they can’t get
right is how to forget what is waiting.
Martina Reisz Newberry's most recent book is WHERE IT GOES (Deerbrook Editions), She is also the author of LEARNING BY ROTE (Deerbrook Editions), WHAT WE CAN’T FORGIVE. LATE NIGHT RADIO, PERHAPS YOU COULD BREATHE FOR ME. HUNGER, AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE: POEMS 1996-2006, NOT UNTRUE & NOT UNKIND (Arabesques Press, Amari Hamadene, editor) and RUNNING LIKE A WOMAN WITH HER HAIR ON FIRE: Collected Poems (Red Hen Press). She is the also the author of LIMA BEANS AND CITY CHICKEN: MEMORIES OF THE OPEN HEARTH—a memoir of her father—published by E.P. Dutton and Co. in 1989. Newberry has been included in Ascent Aspirations first hard-copy Anthology, also in the anthology In The Company Of Women and has been widely published in literary magazines In the US and abroad. Martina lives in Hollywood, California with her husband Brian and their best 4-legged pal, Charlie the Cat.
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