In Memory

for Dennis Simms

Death
is a close thing.
How long
before another student dies.
How long
before Death comes knocking.
I'll keep grading, making lesson plans.
Standing up in front of the class
as if Death is not standing next to me.

Tommy Sheffield was born in 1991, in Fairfax, Virginia. He is a graduate of James Madison University, where he studied poetry under Laurie Kutchins. He currently resides in Washington, DC, where he teaches high school English Language Arts. He is a graduate of the Creative Writing MFA program at George Mason University, where he studied poetry. He is the poetry editor for Stillhouse Press and Voice Lux Press. He has served as the Managing Editor for Megan Merchant's poetry collection Before the Fevered Snow; Baltimore Sons, a collection by Dean Smith, head of Duke University Press; How to Bury a Boy at Sea, Phil Goldstein's debut poetry collection; The Machine Code of a Bleeding Moon by Latif Askia Ba; A Map of Every Undoing by Alicia Elkort; and The Castration of a Minor God by John Compton. He is a co-founder of Shiversong LLC alongside Megan Merchant. Sheffield's poetry, stories, and essays have been featured in ucity review, Adelaide, Sanitarium, Cough Syrup Magazine, and 3 A.M. Press.