Lori Izykowski is the single mother of an almost-driving teen living in Fredericksburg VA and working at the University of Mary Washington as Office Manager for Advancement and University Relations. Poetry lets her express emotions that are “stuck” inside her. She wrote this poem “in frustration over the oil spill [in the Gulf].” To learn more about Lori visit her blog.
Helpless
By Lori Izykowski
Do you hear the screaming?
The crying?
Me neither.
It’s deafening, really.
The sadness is overwhelming,
and the helplessness.
Like the tree in the forest,
dying with no witness.
Fin and feather,
scale and shell.
Can you hear it?
Me neither.
Make it stop.
Oh, Lori, how chilling. A masterpiece in so few words. Thank you. Jean
Powerful!