Poetry by Mark Danowsky

David Sanabria CC




Living Beyond
 
At 92, on the phone with my grandmother
she says, “You don’t want to live this long”
& before I can halt pressured speech
I say, “I know”
 
She was the last of her siblings
her husband gone two decades
the friends she drove to all their appointments
no longer around to rely on her aid
 
Gram lived five more years
a one-of-a-kind person
who only had a glimpse at depression
towards the very end
 
“I’m doing this for you” she said
to my mother about surgery
knowing my mother
would need the same
 
The mother-daughter relationship
is always fraught
& many in my family have said
That’s not my story to tell
 
Mom died a year
after her own mother--
just enough time to
take on a little of Gram’s ways
 
A year is not enough time
to learn about yourself
as a newfound orphan
only now fully owning your life




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Mark Danowsky is Editor-in-Chief of ONE ART: a journal of poetry. His short poetry collections include Meatless (Plan B Press), Violet Flame (tiny wren lit), JAWN (Moonstone Press), and As Falls Trees (NightBallet Press). Take Care is forthcoming from Moon Tide Press in 2025. His poems and other writing have been curated in many journals including Alba, The New Verse News, anti-heroin chic, Right Hand Pointing, The Broadkill Review, Gargoyle, and The Summerset Review.