May 6~ MAGGIE WARREN

Welcome, poetry lovers! Today we're shining the spotlight on American poet, Margaret Kathryn ("Maggie") Warren. I particularly appreciate the line, "Grief is contortion," from this moving poem, "Elegy to a Young Friend II." Please enjoy! Thank you, Maggie, for sharing your work with SHINE international poetry series.

Elegy to a Young Friend II
After Emily Skaja’s “Elegy for R”
For N.C.

I’m inventing a carnival.
Hope to meet you there
to explain how we felt:

like sticky skies + your friends
shaded under elephant tusk
storm clouds. Cotton candy

evaporated, funnel cake
burnt. Everything dusted
bitter cherry.

Like we got lost
in our hometown in winter.
If I don’t believe you’ll be back

at least I believe
we’re still friends.
Grief is contortion.

White carousel
horses wait in spin-quiet.

Margaret Kathryn Warren (Maggie) is a queer and disabled poet who writes about love and toads. They work as an adjunct English instructor. They earned their Master’s Degree of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and Media Arts in 2024 at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Their work has appeared in Hayden’s Ferry Review, Half Mystic Journal, Bear Review, and others, and their poem “To the Cane Toad” was a finalist for the 2025 Patty Friedmann Writing Contest. You can find more of their work at www.maggiewarren.com or linktr.ee/toadpoetmaggs.

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