Susanne Jutzeler / Pexels

Conversation in the Cathedral

where are you?

dublin

where?

the bar

oh, so you’re somewhere with friends

no friends

are you with friends?

i’m nowhere with no friends

do you need anything from me?

i’ll be fine

are you lying to me?

no

are you lying to me?

i’m not lying to you

are you going to mass?

i’ll make my way there

okay. are you okay?

i’m okay

i’ll see you at mass?

i’m probably not going to mass

do you want anything from me?

Schism

Under lavender scented sheets

workday mornings called in sick

we discovered sins previously unknown

I-love-yous hush-spoken so tender

they offend angels; soften devils

Your blushing cheeks. A radical blessing.

Runoff

Give me something unforgivable to

churn with my tongue, I want to taste

your every sin or defilement or digression—

I want to forgive, because in some way

drinking your dirt and tasting your stains

will cleanse me, I trust it, I want your

rung-out offenses bloating my cheeks

threatening to asphyxiate and suffocate

if I breathe instead of swallow; I am

a weez of a savior and a hell of a Christ

a crumb of a Christian, a stain of a saint

a gutter for your runoff, a pillar of salt

Oso Guardiola

Oso Guardiola received his first MFA in English, Creative Writing — Fiction from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, University of Iowa, and also earned the Maytag Scholarship and the Arthur James Pflughaupt Prize. His short stories have won the 2023 Gulf Coast Prize, the 2022 J.F. Powers Prize runner-up, and a 2021 Honorable Mention in the San Miguel Writers’ Contest. His nonfiction took 3rd place in the 2023 Jacques Maritain Prize. He was the 2024 Winter Workshop Scholar at Tin House. His work has appeared in Gulf Coast Magazine, Latino Book Review Magazine, La Piccioletta Barca, Dappled Things, and will be featured in Anarchist Fictions Journal. Oso is now pursuing a second MFA in Spanish, Creative Writing — Poetry at the University of Iowa.