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Prairie Schooner 77.4 (2003) 167



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Pang

Terese Svoboda


Such a pang, almost a citrus spray.
Why not pick up the phone
just to hear Mom?
Well, I pick it up.

But you must be sleeping,
rapt in your exile, rapt past
the time and distance that
follow the bending toward

light, the lit mother,
over your old bed
braying Breakfast
against your resistance.

Such a pang. I could let it
ring but I'd startle you,
you'd worry whatever
we said into

soft white pellets,
greying between your fingers
into pills you'll swallow later,
some light night.





Terese Svoboda's most recent books are Treason (Zoo P, 2002) and Trailer Girl and Other Stories (Counterpoint P, 2001).

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