april salzano
which isn’t your second, but the second
self-published work is handed to me at a rest stop
after we talk for a second about our second
son, who bears the mark of your dysfunction
like a genetic code. Predisposed, they said,
a family constellation. The discovery of a second
cause lies dormant for a second decade
of epidemic. 1 in 55. When will medicine
and science stop taking second
to the second-guessing of psychologists
and second-hand diagnoses of parents begging
for a second to themselves. Because their children
are worth more than a second glance, need nothing
more than some sort of attempt at a second chance.
April Salzano teaches college writing in Pennsylvania where she lives
with her husband and two sons. She recently finished her first collection of
poetry, for which she is seeking a publisher and is working on a memoir on
raising a child with autism. Her work has appeared in journals such as
Poetry Salzburg, Convergence, Ascent Aspirations, Convergence, The Camel
Saloon, Centrifugal Eye, Deadsnakes, Drown in My Own Fears, Montucky Review,
Visceral Uterus and Salome, Poetry Quarterly, Writing Tomorrow and is
forthcoming in Rattle. The author also serves as co-editor at Kind of a
Hurricane Press.