Delmarva Review: Never Room by Ed Granger

Author’s Note: “The rooms we inhabit often inhabit us in ways we may not even realize. ‘Never Room’ is a poem about coping with miscarriage in which place and memory intersect. It tries to capture a moment on the trajectory of loss that also hints at future loss in the form of divorce. I tend to see the gray areas in life, so I avoid using absolutes. But this poem is an attempt to face up to one.”

Never Room

When we first returned to the never room
it was mote-strewn as ever. Its upper
dresser drawer stuck its chin into our
nearly future. The sun rose in the soon
to be rest of our lives, so we tiptoed
around its rose-wallpapered gesture of
not-quite. But on this winter night, I’ve
come to lie here on its glistening hardwood
floor, pray to whatever moon is listening.
To the moon of waning vows. To the moon
of never-moving ultrasound. To the blue
moon of a chance we’ll gently touch down
somewhere past this woven wicker bin of never
read-to bedtimes, breathing its after, after, after.

⧫

Ed Granger’s chapbook, “Voices from the First Gilded Age,” was published in 2019 by Finishing Line Press. He lives in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where he works for a healthcare nonprofit. His poems have also appeared or are forthcoming in THINK Journal, Potomac Review, Little Patuxent Review, Naugatuck River Review, and Rappahannock Review.

Delmarva Review specializes in discovering the most compelling new poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction annually. As a result, the authors may be well established (like today’s poet), or they may be new writers seeking discovery from their first significant publication. The review is an independent, 501(c)(3) nonprofit publication supported by individual contributions and a grant from the Talbot County Arts Council with funds from the Maryland State Arts Council. It is sold in paperback and digital editions at Amazon.com and other online booksellers and at specialty regional bookstores. See the website for information: DelmarvaReview.org.