Don’t Die in
January
it’s my birthday month
plus there’s that smell of steam heat
the datebook’s best page
February
not Valentine’s Day!
organizing and mending
Joe died then, not you
March
still no leaves, so death
is a black bag rattling
on flooded branches
April
not near your birthday
loss doesn’t fit with rebirth
too pretty for death
May
babyman’s birthday,
my month to be most fertile
and play in the soil
June
I already have
enough reasons to cry with
weddings/commencements
July
two words: it is our
wedding anniversary
don’t ruin it please
August
it’s our vacation
and mourners need more structure
to get through their days
September
beginnings, not ends
heading off to school, not grave
red apple, not worm
October
too many zombies
on front stoops, tombstones on lawns,
skeletons in stores
November
I hate irony
Counting blessings near turkey
you didn’t cook? No
December
Don’t make me force out
hollyjolly cheer with red-
rimmed eyes nope can’t won’t
Therefore
no month is open,
so you’re flat out of options
just stick around
Tina Kelley’s Rise Wildly is forthcoming from CavanKerry Press, joining Abloom and Awry, Precise, and The Gospel of Galore, which won the Washington State Book Award. She co-authored Almost Home: Helping Kids Move from Homelessness to Hope, and shared in a Pulitzer covering 9/11 at The New York Times. She and her husband have two children and live in Maplewood, New Jersey.