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Survivor
Wayne Lee

I loved that birch, her graceful curve, bowed
earthward from the blizzard of ninety-six.
I saw the courage in her work to lift
her crown again toward the canopy.

Now I grieve the empty space she filled,
the mound of fresh-cut rounds, her bark
whiter than the palest skin.

—
Writer, editor, and teacher Wayne Lee lives in Santa Fe, NM. Lee’s poems have appeared in Tupelo Press, Slipstream, The New Guard, The Lowestoft Chronicle, Writer’s Digest, and other journals and anthologies. He was awarded the 2012 Fischer Prize and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and four Best of the Net Awards. His collection The Underside of Light was a finalist for the 2014 New Mexico/Arizona Book Award. His collection Buddha’s Cat was published by Whistle Lake Press in May 2024. His memoir Service Husband: A Caregiver’s Journey Through Disability, Suicide and Recovery is forthcoming from Mercury HeartLink Press in January of 2025, and his collection Dining on Salt: Four Seasons of Septets is forthcoming from Cornerstone Press in April 2025. Lee is the founder and host of the online Tuesday Poetry Practice community.

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