Editor’s comment: Katherine Gekker’s “Radium Girl” poem in the current Delmarva Review was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize by Pushcart’s editorial board members.
Author’s note: I’ve been interested in science ever since I read a biography of Marie Curie when I was in grade school. I was entranced by her discovery of radium, with its eerie glow. Years later, I learned about the radium girls who had fun with that hypnotic element – a playful innocence that proved deadly. This is a persona poem in the voice of a radium girl. It takes some liberties with chronology.
Katherine Gekker is the author of In Search of Warm Breathing Things (Glass Lyre Press, 2019). Her poems have been published in Delmarva Review, Little Patuxent Review, Broadkill Review, Poetry South, Apple Valley Review. Her poems, collectively called “…to Cast a Shadow Again,” have been set to music by composer Eric Ewazen. Composer Carson Cooman has set a seasonal cycle of her poems, “Chasing the Moon Down,” to music. She was born in the District of Columbia. When not writing, she practices piano. Her website is www.katherinegekker.com.
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