Tilt
by Laura Winkelspecht

There’s that certain quality
when someone speaks to you
after you’ve lost the other half

of your whole, that soft prodding,
that subtle emphasis on the word are
in “how are you?” that head tilt

of concern that I am compelled to fix
like a crooked picture: “I’m okay,”
I say because anything else

would cause their heads
to roll off their necks
with the sharp sadness of it all

About the Poet: 

Laura Winkelspecht is a poet and writer from Wisconsin who writes with the hope of finding some lightning among the lightning bugs. She has been published in One Sentence Poems, Rat’s Ass Review, The Lake, Poets Reading the News, Millwork, and others. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee.