Not Humming

by Laura Foley

On the forced march

from Tientsin to Woosung,

our Marines, ordered silent—

No humming or singing,

snapped the Japanese,

as the men trudged

a hundred miles to prison.

My father not humming

the whole of four winters,

or to my knowledge, since.

* * * * *

“Not Humming” is from the author’s collection Night Ringing (Headmistress Press). 

Laura Foley is the author of six poetry collections, including, most recently, WTF and Night Ringing. Her poem “Gratitude List” won the Common Good Books poetry contest and was read by Garrison Keillor on The Writer’s Almanac. Her poem “Nine Ways of Looking at Light” won the Joe Gouveia Outermost Poetry Contest, judged by Marge Piercy. A palliative care volunteer in hospitals, with an M.A. and a M. Phil. in English Lit. from Columbia University, she lives with her partner, and three big dogs among the hills of Vermont.