“In Whom the Dying Does Not End,” by J.C. Todd (Poetry ’90)

Poetry alum J.C. Todd was recently featured in The Night Heron Barks. Read an interview with Todd here, and read an excerpt of Todd’s poem “In Whom the Dying Does Not End” below: 

In Whom the Dying Does Not End

Just as her eggs began
to cluster along
the genital ridge
and the neural groove
began to close, its cells
churning toward brain,
just as a vacuole
opened to become a mouth,
and nubs of her limbs budded,
Hafez, father of Bashar,
ordered the military
force of his regime
to crush the revolt of
the Muslim Brotherhood.
It happened in Hama
while I gestated, TV off,
newspapers unread,
in Harrisburg, my thinking
sludgy, speech cut back,
consumed by what I fed.

Read this poem in its entirety here: https://nightheronbarks.com/j-c-todd-in-whom-the-dying-does-not-end/