The Depression by Miriam Manglani

The Depression

When I visited your grave this year,
fifteen years after your death,
I noticed the ground had sunk,
the length of the depression
about the length of your coffin.

Your burial had entered
an advanced state of decomposition.

Your coffin had disintegrated.

Below me, only dirt surrounded your bones.
The air your body had in its former wooden home—gone.

I stood in the depression.
My footing wobbly.
My roots—decayed.

*

Miriam Manglani lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with her husband and three children. She works full-time as a Technical Training Manager. Her poems have been published in various magazines and journals, including Sparks of Calliope, Red Eft Review, One Art, Glacial Hills Review, and Paterson Literary Review. Her poetry chapbook, Ordinary Wonders, was published by Prolific Press.

First Letter Home From Camp by Miriam Manglani

First Letter Home From Camp

After two long weeks,
his first letter finally arrives.

I wrap my hands around it.
Paper he touched
with his tiny warm hands.
Envelop he sealed shut.

Anticipation mocks as I tear it open
to read a note
in his 9-year-old attempt at handwriting.
Just one sentence.
“I must tell you my fan broke.”

*

Miriam Manglani lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with her husband and three children. She works full-time as a Sr. Technical Training Manager. Her poems have been been published in various magazines and journals including Rushing Thru the Dark, Cerasus Magazine, Sparks of Calliope, Canyon Voices, and the Paterson Review. Most recently, her poetry chapbook “Ordinary Wonders” was published by Prolific Press.