Julia Lisella

Waiting for a diagnosis
PUBLISHED IN FOLIO 2026: VOL. 41.

my house is on fire, a slow burning
every book, every sheet of paper, every synthetic rug
is a kindling

I have woken from three dreams now featuring
my dead parents as alive as ever
and I can hardly name my fears—a pulsing in my chest
my hands and feet in the kitchen making
and my heart – a thrumming pressed to my ribcage

my love is waiting for the doctor to call
the doctor has called, a slow burning
we stand at the threshold do you smell the burning leaves, he asks
yes, my darling we are standing inside them

𐫱𐫱𐫱

Julia Lisella is the author of three poetry collections and a chapbook. Her latest collection, Our Lively Kingdom (Bordighera Press), was a 2023 Paterson Book Prize Finalist and Grand Prize Finalist and Poetry Honorable Mention for the Eric Hoffer Book Award. Her poems appear in Ploughshares, Alaska Quarterly, The Common, Nimrod, Pangyrus and many others. She curates the Italian-American Writers Association Reading Series in Boston and teaches at Regis College in Massachusetts. For more, see www.julialisellapoetry.com