Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
"A Week After," by Sarai Austin
A week after Evander dies
I sweep the last of his fur
from the plank floors.
Dark, difficult floors that
are a challenge to keep clean,
with or without a cat.
Death keeps company
with our worst memories,
the way he crawled behind
the toilet, the sink.
Sticking his head beneath
the baker’s rack and finally,
resting in front of the screen door,
as though waiting to leave.
Until we fell asleep,
giving him peace,
you on the kitchen floor a few feet
from where he lay,
me in the next room on the couch.
An hour later, 1:20 a.m.,
and then we wrapped him
in his favorite green towel
that matched his eyes.
In the morning we buried him
in the wild corner of the yard,
outside the window that’s over my desk,
where the bird bath sits,
the only thing we brought
from the house that burned,
except Evander.
Born on a farm along the banks of the Mississippi, Sarai Austin has spent her adult life in Southern California. She has taught personal narrative at UCSD, performance poetry at Idyllwild Arts Academy, and has been the recipient of California Arts Council grants. For a number of years she coordinated a poetry reading series, from which she published an anthology of participating poets. “A Week After” is from Austin’s recent collection In, Then Out, published by Liddie Dabbs Press and reprinted by permission. Author’s photo by Richard Astle.
Here's something you might be interested in.
"A Week After," by Sarai Austin
"A Week After," by Sarai Austin
A week after Evander dies
I sweep the last of his fur
from the plank floors.
Dark, difficult floors that
are a challenge to keep clean,
with or without a cat.
Death keeps company
with our worst memories,
the way he crawled behind
the toilet, the sink.
Sticking his head beneath
the baker’s rack and finally,
resting in front of the screen door,
as though waiting to leave.
Until we fell asleep,
giving him peace,
you on the kitchen floor a few feet
from where he lay,
me in the next room on the couch.
An hour later, 1:20 a.m.,
and then we wrapped him
in his favorite green towel
that matched his eyes.
In the morning we buried him
in the wild corner of the yard,
outside the window that’s over my desk,
where the bird bath sits,
the only thing we brought
from the house that burned,
except Evander.
Born on a farm along the banks of the Mississippi, Sarai Austin has spent her adult life in Southern California. She has taught personal narrative at UCSD, performance poetry at Idyllwild Arts Academy, and has been the recipient of California Arts Council grants. For a number of years she coordinated a poetry reading series, from which she published an anthology of participating poets. “A Week After” is from Austin’s recent collection In, Then Out, published by Liddie Dabbs Press and reprinted by permission. Author’s photo by Richard Astle.
Comments