My dead and buried
speak from the memorial cards
inside my white Bible.
They command through their
ghost teeth,
“Again.”
Grace! There is no again.
The leaves turn red and turn gold.
I go old,
writing softly,
pulling down inky words like
snuff spit into great-grandma’s tin can.
Dena Rash Guzman is a Vegas born author and editor of www.unshodquills.com. She lives on a former lily plantation, now an organic produce farm, outisde of Portland, Oregon. Her work can be found online and in print, and she currently is at work on her first book of short stories, to be printed in 2012 by independent English language publisher Haliterature of Shanghai, China. On Oct. 7, 2011, she shares a Portland, Oregon stage for a reading at Booty Call: An Evening of Literary Smut, with Steve Almond and others at the Blue Monk on Belmont Street.
