Daddy refuses Gramma private nurses. Next thing I know, he sends her packing to the Goddard House in Kentucky. "Funny things go on there," Mama whispers. "Tough," goes Daddy, "we're broke." Very next day, Daddy loses heavy in the market.

Then comes blood in the stool, transfusions, a major reconstruction. Daddy lies tubed in ICU, meat of machines, a surgeon's recreation.

"Keep me alive," go his eyes, "keep me alive."



KIRBY WRIGHT was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii. He is a graduate of Punahou School in Honolulu and the University of California at San Diego. He received his MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University, where he studied under the tutelage of Frances Mayes. Kirby was nominated for the Pushcart Prize and is a past recipient of the Ann Fields Poetry Prize, the Academy of American Poets Award, the Browning Society Award for Dramatic Monologue, and Arts Council Silicon Valley Fellowships in Poetry and The Novel. BEFORE THE CITY, Kirby's first book of poetry, has just been published by Lemon Shark Press.
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