Sonnet at Zero

Oh, savage Beauty, suffer me to pass…

–Edna St. Vincent Millay

Strange to say I feel no fear,

just calm readiness for what’s next,

and here we go under a gray cloud layer

earpopping into blue sky over Boston Harbor–

we skitter like a waterbug in the Cessna.

You know you can use a penny to replace a fuse,

said my brother last week, and I thought,

who has a penny? I don’t even have a quarter

in my bag anymore. No change

for the man on the sidewalk with the paper cup

reciting, Change  change change, as he shakes it,

and I say, I’m sorry I have none. I don’t even carry cash–

just loss and desire, rattling and crumpled,

and I’m taking them with me like a field guide.

Melissa McKinstry hosts quarterly poetry and jazz evenings and curates a community Poet Tree in San Diego. Her poetry appears or is forthcoming in many journals including Beloit, Adroit, Narrative, and Best New Poets 2023 and 2025, and was selected for the 2025 New Ohio Review Literary Prize and a 2026 Pushcart Prize. An Adroit Djanikian Scholar and the inaugural writer-in-residence at the Millay House Rockland, she currently serves on the Alumni Council for Pacific University’s MFA program and the Board of the Millay House Rockland. MelissaMcKinstry.com.