Lynne Schmidt

Lynne Schmidt is the grandchild of a Holocaust survivor, and mental health professional with a focus in trauma and healing. They are the winner of the 2021 The Poetry Question Chapbook Award, and the 2020 New Women’s Voices Contest. Her chapbooks include Sexytime (forthcoming with The Poetry Question), Dead Dog Poems (Finishing Line Press), Gravity (Nightingale and Sparrow Press) which was listed as one of the 100 Best Breakup Books of All Time by Book Authority, and On Becoming a Role Model (Thirty West), which was featured on The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed for PTSD Awareness Week. In 2012 they started the project, AbortionChat, which aims to lessen the stigma around abortion. When given the choice, Lynne prefers the company of her three dogs and one cat to humans.

Not Ready to Let Go

I carry my dead dog for months.

He comes to work with me,

stays buckled into the passenger seat

while I meet with clients.

When I work on contact notes,

he sits atop my desk,

the way he used to lay on his bed.

I’m careful to face the window so he can look out,

or so that he can look in.

I carry him on the bad days,

hands touching the cool wood box,

grasping for some trace of warmth.

I carry him on the road trips

because he hated being left home.

I carry him, carry him, carry him,

because I’m not ready to let go.