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This writing was accepted for publication in the 108 page perfect-bound ISSN# / ISBN# issue/book “Existential Threats” Down in the Dirt, v172 (the June 2020 Issue) Order the paperback book:

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The Book

Nancy Diamante Bonazzoli

He locked her in the back shed in Albuquerque in one
hundred degree heat-
left her there a week or more or less
with water of course (they didn't want her dead) but no food

no foolish ideas no willfulness would let her out
her mother would never come, but he came with his book
once each day
asking if she had thought about her sins

she would say no though she had thought
long into the night when it had cooled and she
could think at all and she would wonder what those words
meant really

words that he spat at her like pigheaded
like penance like willfulness and she would
question things like why

they didn't want her
stubbornness her extra
fat around the middle

they didn't want her
he was a pillar of the church
though her can overflowed she must realize what her

sins were or she wouldn't come out
yet the bugs did and the rats did at dusk
especially when the night was darkest

the other day she turned sixty five
and the shade moved while she waited
in my car in the heat with the doors locked

the windows up and when I came back
from getting the milk I found her
crying for the keys

she clenched in her hand and
the book, the book
the book.

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