Tilt-a-Whirl
A Poetry Sporadical of Repeating Forms
Power, 2012
by Sally Allen McNall
When the power went out
the cell phones still worked
When the power went out
we had no candles, and high windows
When the power went out, it was
summer, and another time zone
When the power went out
we considered what to do
When the power went out
we did nothing for an hour
While the cell phones still worked
we called our friends
While the cell phones still worked
our friends called us
We had no candles, and high windows
No one had any news
In the early days of the Republic
we had a fireplace and small windows
We had no power in the late days
of the Republic
We had no Republic in the late years
of the years, in summer
Sally Allen McNall’schapbook, How to Behave at the Zoo and Other Lessons, was a winner of the State Street Press competition in 1997, and her first book manuscript, Rescue, won the Backwaters Press Prize in 1999. A chapbook, Trying to write a poem without the word blood in it, came out in 2005 from PWJ Publishing. Her 2010 book, Where Once, mostly elegies for the natural world, was an Editor’s Choice in Main Street Rag. She is a member of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers.
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