Death By a Nose
My
throat
began to
itch–now it
scrapes and a
swallow feels as
if it lacerates. My
sinuses are clogged
like faulty drains, and
my head is pounding as
if to burst this debilitated
brain. Would I could finagle
a life de-nasal and ditch this
snout. Hold my calls. Adopt
my dog. It’s my final, fatal
cold; of that there isn’t
any doubt.
Barbara Lydecker Crane has two published chapbooks: Zero Gravitas (White Violet Press, 2012) and Alphabetricks (for children, Daffydowndilly Books, 2013). She won the 2011 Helen Schaible International Sonnet Contest. Her poems, either light or serious (and occasionally both), have appeared or are forthcoming in Angle, Atlanta Review, First Things, The Flea, Light, Measure, Mezzo Cammin, and 14 by 14, among others, and in several anthologies.