Janette Schafer
Janette Schafer is a poet, playwright, nature photographer, part-time rock singer and full-time banker living in Pittsburgh, PA. She is a Chatham University MFA student in Creative Writing. Her poem "What we want to remember about this river" won the 2019 Laurie Mansell Reich/Academy of American Poets Prize. Her play Mad Virginia won the 2018 Pittsburgh Original Short Play Series. Her writing and photography has been published in numerous journals, magazines, and newspapers. Janette recommends the Hispanic Heritage Foundation.
Those whose bodies have vanished
in the black hole of disappearing meat.
Those who must ignore their hungry child
because the answer is always, “No.”
Because with every because
with every because
with every because
I felt the shame of it, the fault of it
Remember the time we split as an atom?
The Great Orange ball of flame
engulfed our notebooks, our laptops,
our blogs. We forgot they were incendiary
