Salvage single work   poetry  
Issue Details: First known date: 2019... 2019 Salvage
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Notes

  • Author's note (2020 re-publication):

    About the poem:

    In 2018, my dad died of a genetic condition called Interstitial Pulmonary Fibrosis — an incurable progressive scarring in the lungs. It was both expected and, of course, deeply unexpected. I included this poem here as, during this pandemic, I am confronted daily with photos of people on ventilators or experiencing permanent lung damage from COVID-19 complications. Anxiety causes shortness of breath, too, so the pandemic has become a time of deep, unsettling paranoia. Dad and I share a lot of genetic material — the anxiety, definitely, and who knows what else just yet. But his eyes were good, and parts of them were donated, so it was soothing to think of him giving sight to someone, maybe a child. Yesterday, grappling with Centrelink’s labyrinth of COVID-19-related forms, I instead found official advice on ‘What to organise before you die’ — reassuring! Anyway, it doesn’t take long to register for organ donation.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Grieve : Stories and Poems about Grief and Loss: Volume Seven Hunter Writers' Centre , Newcastle : Hunter Writers' Centre , 2019 18312383 2019 anthology poetry 'It will remain the single most devastating day of my life. But without the helpers, it would have been so much worse.People helped me that day in ways that they probably won’t ever know. Their kindness carried me through the darkness. Total strangers. I remember them every day; it replays in my mind like clockwork. I wonder if they remember me. If they know what they did for me that day. I wonder what their names were.From 'Helpers' by Kate Littlejohn, winner, 2019 Grieve Writing Competition. (Publication summary) Newcastle : Hunter Writers' Centre , 2019
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Writ Poetry Review no. 4 February 2020 19281098 2020 periodical issue 2020
Last amended 9 Jul 2020 09:34:15
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