Current Issue: Fall/Winter 2010

Dear Empire [These are your nurseries]  
Oliver de la Paz

These are your nurseries. The children here are divided into rows according to the time of their birth. They are arranged alphabetically, so as not to lose track of them. Little blue and pink shoots scoot back and forth in incubators. The nurses pace with their hair tied up and masks covering their faces. You can see their eyes shift from bed to bed. The hum of the air conditioning is audible above the cries of the children, and you can see small fingers rise from the swaddling.  Some of the children are raising their voices. Some of them are holding still.

 

Oliver de la Paz is the author of three collections of poetry, Names Above Houses, Furious Lullaby, and most recently, Requiem for the Orchard. His work has appeared in The Southern Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, Tin House, and elsewhere. He teaches creative writing at Western Washington University.