Grace Mattern

author of two poetry books, has received fellowships from the NH State Council on the Arts and Vermont Studio Center, winner of the NH Reader’s Choice Award (2014); her work has appeared in The Sun, Calyx, Prairie Schooner, Poet Lore and Yankee


 

Music 

 

I am beginning to listen to music you never heard. Your mother and I talk about where we think you are now, whether we will ever see you again. My father hangs his head every time I talk about missing you. Who else is thinking about you at this exact moment? Today is gray and damp; the hunters are in the woods, deer dart across the road when I drive at night. Your hand was blue and cold in mine as you died. Nothing has changed. Every day is every day.

from The Truth About Death by Grace Mattern (Turning Point Books)