From BAMBOO RIDGE Issue Number 90, AN OFFERING OF RICE, by Mavis Hara

Triggers for August:

1. they laughed and greeted each other

2. just potential school dropouts

3. the dark woman in the photo

4. what’s for dinner?

5. she cried herself to sleep

6. Episcopalian, Catholic, Congregationalist, Mormon, Shinto, and Buddhist

7. but I was not unhappy

8. I sighed

From “Chemotherapy”

          The slightest touch in the shower and my hair pulls out of my scalp, coming out in my fingers in wide black ribbons. The ribbons flow down my back and arms with the warm water. They encircle me, cling to the warmth on my body like a toddler fearful of being left. Finally, curling in tendrils around my ankles, they flow reluctantly toward the drain. There, abandoned by water, and trapped against the slivery round grating, they twist themselves into black balls, hollow worlds, empty nests.

           . . .

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