DAY OF THE DEAD | ARLENE ANG

Flowers prelude the smell of beer.
For a few minutes, we remember Tita Dora—
mother, wife, patriot, claustrophobic.
Candles light up the marble.
We shake out supper from KFC buckets.
The mounds of rice glow
like little moons, shaved heads
of lambs. In the dark, someone slips
on a chicken bone. Distant
lightning zigzags a curse while
several graves away, a transistor radio
shudders Macarena. No one
dances out of respect. Tita Dora during her life
forbid gambling. The men
gather round a makeshift table
on the grass. Her husband calls a raise.
He is winning at poker.
At ten, twelve and fourteen,
we play a quieter game
of Chinese checkers. Not knowing
the rules, 
we make them up as we go along.



Arlene Ang serves as staff editor for The Pedestal Magazine and Press 1. She lives in Spinea, Italy. More of her work may be viewed at www.leafscape.org.
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SUMMER 2009 COVER

YELLOW FINCHES
JIM KROSSCHELL

THE FACTORY: AN ELEGY IN 6 PARTS
REBECCA LEHMANN

CROW YEAR
PAUL SILVERMAN

DAY OF THE DEAD
ARLENE ANG

THE MYTH OF SISYPHUS
EDWARD MC WHINNEY

BABY IN A JAR
TANIA HERSHMAN


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JOHN PIPKIN
J. ROBERT LENNON
MARY STRACHAN
STEPHEN HAVEN
C.E. CHAFFIN
PAULA MEEHAN
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D.A. POWELL
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