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Pope Fiction
Upping the ante in a Frankish plot, madder stains dotting his frock, a
palsied saint enters the divine office to cogitate argot sums. An
apprentice awaits his break, painting from a narrow palette of Pict and
Jute, while belowstairs girls of sturdy constitution blanch as vowels of
silence mimp their mouths. Shoeless monks serve their penance in the
kitchen, concocting wanton soup for the village wretch. In stitches one
and all, they convene at the end of the day to weave a history of
conquest, threading their galled hearts into a blue Bayeux.
Domestic Bliss
Graciela irons the sheets, polishes the piano keys. She takes her lunch
under a banyan, pinching crumbs into a pile. She strokes the cat, rinses
her fingers in the pool.
Graciela is one name only. She takes her
wages in cash. The bus brings her half way; she walks the rest. Her
daughter does laundry with a little English. Her husband drives the
bread truck and they eat from it on Fridays.
Graciela says, Cheese no good. She
says, Buy Mistolín. Is berry berry nice. She flushes the toilet
twice for the joy of it.
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Holly Iglesias (born St. Louis, Missouri, 1949) is a poet
whose work has appeared in Prairie Schooner, The Prose
Poem, Arts & Letters, Margie, and Crab Orchard Review
and other journals. The recipient of fellowships from the
Massachusetts Cultural Council and the Edward Albee
Foundation, she recently completed Now You See It, a
prose poetry collection focused on the 1904 World's Fair. In
2004, Quale Press published her critical study, Boxing
Inside the Box: Women's Prose Poetry.
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