x

Trinity Lutheran Church

          Ellison Bay, WI

A nave so steep,

the builder must’ve

thought he would

ascend. That avocado

paint might just

get you into heaven.

Hope invested to save

hundreds—construction

for a congregation

marked by then in

churchyard graves.

x

x

Feather

I come to

find it is

off the wing,

among the longest

on the bird,

a pattern only

found in males.

Barred white

and brown-

grey, I hold

it in my hand—

a scratch, a sail

as long as my

arm. How I

sat there as

you wept,

unable to move.

x

x

Sandra Marchetti is the 2023 winner of The Twin Bill Book Prize for Best Baseball Poetry Book of the Year. She is the author of three full-length collections of poetry, DIORAMA, forthcoming from Stephen F. Austin State University Press (2025), Aisle 228 (SFA Press, 2023), and Confluence (Sundress Publications, 2015). Sandy is also the author of four chapbooks of poetry and lyric essays. Her poetry and essays appear widely in Mid-American Review, Blackbird, Ecotone, Southwest Review, Subtropics, and elsewhere. She is Poetry Editor Emerita at River Styx Magazine. Sandy earned an MFA in Creative Writing—Poetry from George Mason University and now serves as the Assistant Director of Academic Support at Harper College in Chicagoland. You can find out more at: https://sandramarchetti.net/