Donna Vorreyer reads her poem “The Sound of Just Before” from Shō No. 5 (Summer 2024).
“This poem attempts to capture the surreal quality of caretaking someone at the end of life. The title functions as a harbinger (since “just before” implies something happening after), and as an oxymoron (since it is impossible to hear something before it makes a sound). In these same ways, grief is impossible and holds only the promise of new ways to mourn.”
– Donna Vorreyer
Donna Vorreyer is the author of Unrivered (forthcoming, 2025), To Everything There Is (2020), Every Love Story is an Apocalypse Story (2016) and A House of Many Windows (2013), all from Sundress Publications. Her poetry, fiction, and essay work have appeared in Ploughshares, Cherry Tree, Poet Lore, Salamander, Harpur Palate, Booth, and elsewhere. She lives and creates in the Chicago area and hosts the monthly online reading series A Hundred Pitchers of Honey.