Haley DiRenzo

Confession to the Stars Who Will Never Be My Children

Look,
all I'm saying is, there are lives people wish
to escape. I have felt my own scramble,
scaling the cliff, handful of loose slope
before slipping. You might pull a poem
from the ash-raining sky. Cup a spider
from the cupboard and carry it outside
where it will choke in the chemical grass.
You might die before 30 from nuclear war
or be trapped in a collapsed city's rubble.
I am certain our world would break
your heart, so I tell myself I am saving you
the sore. This is the noble decision
isn’t it? I’m only trying to do what is right.
But here is the secret, it is no trouble to love
with a heart full of holes. Your absence
is a door, and I open it. Look how you leave
the whole sky.

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Haley DiRenzo is a writer and attorney living in Colorado. Her poetry has appeared in Barely South Review, One Art and Bending Genres, among others, and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She was a 2026 Best of the Net Finalist in Fiction for her flash piece, “Upending the Garden,” published in Epistemic Literary. Outside of work and writing, you can find her browsing bookstores, brewing tea and at the theater. Instagram: @haleydirenzo