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Table of Contents for Issue 15/16

This work first appeared in Gargoyle, issue #15/16. Please respect the fact that this material is copyrighted. It is made available here without charge for personal use only. It may not be stored, displayed, published, reproduced, or used for any other purpose without the express consent of the author or artist.

What it felt like

David McAleavey

what it felt like, being the father of a new son,
coming home to a woman I barely remembered, a town
abandoned long ago? well it was pretty peaceful: I was
tumbleweed roughed up against barbed wire, I was dust

sifting. horned toads snuck around the foundations, &
the wind tried to remember something about winter, about
cold, and I was the wind, silent inside & calm.

had I been acting a melancholy scene in a tragic western,
sure of myself in the role I had, well-paid & well-tanned,
I couldn't have been more at ease. that's what it felt like

when I was told I was the son of this prairie desert, she
was my mother, my life had begun; & incidentally, life has
begun to shine at the threadbare places: maybe beyond
another version like a river is gleaming dimly along.

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