On Her 83rd Birthday
Lea asked about the women
in the photograph;
looked down and fiddled
with the pages, didn’t want to talk.
Yes, she was a nurse in the Air Force.
This one is my sister, her lover.
After Nellie mentioned the disease,
I thought about my aunt’s carved chest,
the lace handkerchiefs inside,
soft, scented like my aunt.
~ Sergio Ortiz
Sergio Ortiz grew up in Chicago, studied English literature at Inter-American University in San German, Puerto Rico, philosophy at World University, Culinary Art at The Restaurant School in Philadelphia. His work has been published in POUI The Cave, Origami Condom. He is pending publication in “Flutter,” “Ascent Aspirations,” “Origami Condom,” “Children, Churches and Daddies,” and “:Cause & Effect.”
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