DECATUR YMCA
There is no question about life in this old, used gym. During peak hours, the halls emit a low hum. What I thought were broken bones turn out to be sadness, that’s all. Some days my lashes block my view of your slow decline. When I first saw you standing in front of the mirror in the weight room, light slid  out of your torso. I forgot to tell you that I was cold and rested there like that fox sunning herself in our meadow. Or were you the moonlight and I the barred owl? As you lose your language, I feel even closer to you. I drive home to sit side-by-side in our well-worn chairs. There is a crooked tenderness.

Kristy Snedden is a trauma psychotherapist thankful for the beauty of poetry and her pets. Her work was awarded an Honorable Mention in the 90^th Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She is a recipient of the “Emerging Woman Poet” prize, 2023, from Small Orange Press and her poetry appears in various on-line and print journals and anthologies, most recently storySouth,  Contemporary Verse 2, Door is a Jar, and Power of the Pause Anthology. She serves as Book Review Editor for Anti-Heroin Chic.  When not working or hiking in the foothills of Appalachia, she loves listening to her husband and their dogs tell tall tales.