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  • Grandpa in a Jar
  • Natalie Louise Tombasco (bio)

i kept him on a shelf / punched air holes to free that weird

brooklyn smell / he never came out / not for birthdays

or housewarmings / he set tripwire along the rim / but

a groundswell of company / clambakes & fireworks made him

unsteady / the undertow of agoraphobia / some days, i thought

i would have dumb luck / tapping on the glass / inside

the decibels ringing like jet engines / him becoming shell-shocked

in the fig trees / but if i was quiet enough / a french song

would crawl through / his muddy diaphragm / after school

i would watch his gangly body / perched upon his favorite

plastic covered couch / near the window / looking out

at the sunflower stoop / some days, i would hold the jar as a conch

against my ear & listen to him whisper : qu'est-ce que c'est? [End Page 46]

Natalie Louise Tombasco

Natalie Louise Tombasco is a current MFA candidate at Butler University in Indianapolis, IN, where she is a reader for Booth: A Journal. Tombasco is from Staten Island, NY.

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