Sarah Mackey Kirby is a Kentucky poet and writer. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Boston Literary Magazine, Connecticut River Review, Impspired, Muddy River Poetry Review, Rat’s Ass Review, and elsewhere. She holds an MA in Teaching and a BA in Political Science. She is focusing on her writing and taking a break from teaching high school history to students who nicknamed her Momma Kirbs and kept her current on young folk lingo.

Compass from the Ruins

I wonder if your dad hadn’t died whether we would have met. Or if he’d done it a different way. Something less son-wrecking than with rope, waiting for you to find him among old boxes and garage tools. If your heart had been just a little less shredded, the pictures in your head a bit less acidic. If we would have happened. Or if I’d stayed home, and that chilly…