at Pulse in Orlando
forty-nine dead
dozens injured
the man named Omar
gone crazy
I’m drinking coffee
at Zip’s
fibromyalgia flare
a couple in the next booth
talk about the shootings
anxious I sit
thinking of my sister’s letter
the family drama
continues
as does this country’s
Paula Anne Yup lives and writes in the Marshall Islands. She has written poetry since childhood and published since college days. She has over a hundred poems in print with work in anthologies (Feathers, Fins & Fur, Earth Beneath, Sky Beyond, A Kiss Still a Kiss, What Book!?), journals (Earth’s Daughters, Mid-American Review) and other literary publications. Her first book, Making a Clean Space in the Sky, was published in 2011 by Evening Street Press.