Authors /
Nola Garrett
P.O. Box 117
When this letter reaches you, know
I have sent you Naaman, my servant,
that you may cure him of his leprosy....
Praise the one that breaks the darkness
I praise the necklace so long
it drapes, loops, and circles
the neck of a grieving dowager
back to her girlhood play....
January 26th: the anniversary of my mother’s death
He is green before the sun,And his branch shooteth forthIn his garden.
Job 8:16...
The pastor’s wife reports to traffic school
We watch cars crash,
bodies crush,
drunks stagger,
adolescents weep,
until...
The pastor's wife considers purgatory
My Pittsburgh son haunts thrift shops,collects old rosaries, hangs them on nailsdown cellar, near his bathroom door.Buried with their best crystal rosaries,...
The pastor’s wife considers drought
Faux thunder haunts my incoherent garden.My chervil withers. The lettuce bolts.Only rosemary’s roots remember rain.Out by the road I find a young possum—...
Easter's ABCs
Let A stand for amaryllis,B for betray,C for cast,and so on until W straddleswant and wake—...
Abandoned boat at sunrise
Up north, my wife, Felice, slippedaway with emphysema, and my workcruised on without me—accounts balanced,mortgages afloat....
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Lillian, Althea, Hattie, Zada
Praise all folds, crinkles, gathers,pleats both sharp and rumpled,corrugated cardboard’s columned smocking.Praise sun-dried blue jeans and raisins’...
The pastor's wife and I
The pastor’s wife does not go out to play.Outside it is Tuesday—merciless and farfrom Sunday. She is all righteous carrots...