Poetry by Ann Weil

     Taber Andrew Bain CC




I Sing a Short Circuit Lullaby


Because I am now parent to my parent

Because a brain is a machine
that sometimes misfires
and I see the sparking panic
in my mother’s eyes

Because I am an expert in hot crossed wires

Because my song is sweet and wet
the same melody she sang to me as a child
mizzling my smoldering genetics

Because it is my turn now
to bring the soothing rain

Because her black box of denial 
is full to bursting
and smoke seeps out its seams

Because in rock-paper-scissors
water beats fire

Because who can turn away
when your first home whispers
I forget to breathe




Ann Weil, Ed.D., is the author of Lifecycle of a Beautiful Woman (Yellow Arrow Publishing, 2023) and Blue Dog Road Trip (Gnashing Teeth Publishing, forthcoming October 2024). Her poetry has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net and appears in Pedestal Magazine, DMQ Review, Maudlin House, 3Elements Review, Okay Donkey, SWWIM, The Shore, and elsewhere. She's a former special education teacher who lives with her husband and soul-dog in Ann Arbor, MI, and Key West, FL.
​