she folded worry into doubt
doubt into disappointment,
stowed her stack of heartaches
alongside sheets and towels in the linen closet.

Although better-known for her prose (novels Brute Heart, Never Done, middle-grade children’s book The Goose Girl’s New Ribbon), Ginger Dehlinger’s poetry has appeared in over two dozen journals and anthologies including issue 12 of Panoply. Her short story “Francine” was first runner- up in the 2022 Great American Fiction contest sponsored by The Saturday Evening Post.