For Oyster Shuckers
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- For Oyster Shuckers
The man prying open my meal has a book. Took him 25 years to write. About his life, which he was living while writing. That’s why it took so long. That, and of course, the oysters. (Had to let his first wife go; he wanted to leave New York, take her home. She said, No.) His tip jar’s not on empty, but close. Oh baby, I don’t want to lose you. I’m on the half shell. [End Page 356]
KATHLEEN BALMA is a teacher, librarian, and translator from Southern Illinois. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Crab Orchard Review, Hotel Amerika, The Journal, Rattle, storySouth, and other magazines. Her awards include a Fulbright teaching year in Spain, a Pushcart Prize, and a fellowship from Rivendell Writers’ Colony. In 2015 she was a finalist for the Montreal International Poetry Prize, and in 2016 she was a Tennessee Williams Scholar at the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. She lives in New Orleans.
