Someone Else, Narrative Poetry by Ann Kammerer

Poetry, chapbook, 40 pages, from Bottlecap Features.

A woman wanders, handing out flower petals. A man mouths the words of pop songs, tapping out time on the bed rail. We hear conversations with ghosts of friends, family, and strangers, and watch preparations for a dinner that happened years ago. Meanwhile, two men anticipate a big game or a championship bout, while a woman reclaims her beauty, gazing at high school photographs.

In Someone Else, Ann Kammerer presents poetic sketches of people with dementia and chronic illness as they live in extended care. Her simple portraits invite readers to travel with each character into interior worlds of re-imagined glories that enliven late adulthood. Through this short, concise collection of nine narrative poems, Kammerer bears witness to overlooked men and women composing the coda of their lives.

Ann Kammerer lives in the Chicago area, having relocated from her home state of Michigan with her husband and daughter. Her poetry and short fiction work have appeared in Fictive Dream, One Art: A Journal of Poetry, Open Arts Forum, Bright Flash Literary Review, Major 7th Magazine, Thoughtful Dog, The Ekphrastic Review, and elsewhere. She’s been anthologized by Crow Woods Publishing and Querencia Press, and she’s received top honors and made the short list in several writing contests. Her chapbook collections of narrative poetry include Yesterday’s Playlist (Bottlecap Press, 2023), Beaut (Kelsay Books, 2024), Friends Once There (Impspired, 2024), and Someone Else (Bottlecap Press, 2024). You can find her here: annkammerer.com