Cassville, Pennsylvania, circa 1830
The village doctor
boiled bodies down to bone
Scum and collagen
tossed in the vegetable garden
of my mother’s childhood home
Sinew to soil
to root
Whatever remained
Whatever he recorded
Reposed in the attic
of the general store
in town
Alice George earned a degree in English literature in 2006 and spent nearly twenty years working as a copywriter in pharmaceutical advertising. In 2023, she left advertising to care for her mother, who had been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. She now works as a teacher’s aide to devote as much time as possible to her writing and her family. Her poetry often explores death and dying, the small Pennsylvania town where her mother grew up, and the uncomfortable intimacy of suburban life.