<\/p>\n
for Lesley, Patty, Kathy, and Eileen<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I woke up in a zoo feeding penguins Nicole Santalucia for Lesley, Patty, Kathy, and Eileen I woke up in a zoo feeding penguins that looked like grandmothers I would\u2019ve knocked down to get a cigarette, but I quit smoking two years ago when I came face to face with a skunk in my backyard. Monday is garbage night\u2014this I know. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":8199,"template":"","categories":[9,49,119],"tags":[889,6,1945,1959,1927,201],"class_list":["post-8197","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aquifer","category-literary-features","category-poetry","tag-aquifer","tag-aquifer-the-florida-review-online","tag-literary-feature","tag-nicole-santalucia","tag-poem","tag-poetry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nthat looked like grandmothers I would\u2019ve
\nknocked down to get a cigarette,
\nbut I quit smoking two years ago
\nwhen I came face to face with
\na skunk in my backyard. Monday
\nis garbage night\u2014this I know.
\nThere was a time when I didn\u2019t
\nknow I had a drug problem then
\nthere was a time when I did. The knowing
\ntrapped and released me. We fenced
\nin the backyard last spring to keep out
\nlittle critters, and now I have land sickness.
\nAnne gave us Jack-in-the-pulpits that have been
\nin the family for generations. I never thought
\nthis scarlet, orange fruit would blossom again and
\nagain and again\u2014that I\u2019d take responsibility without
\ntaking blame. Taking has nothing to do with Mondays
\nand Tuesdays. I take the weekend to grow tomatoes.
\nI always take more and the devil\u2019s ear listens
\nto my spiritual disease. So does Mr. and Mrs. Brown,
\nand Mrs. Jones down the street wants to put the house
\nin her name. If the loan doesn\u2019t go through, she might
\nget drunk and I might get struck by lightning.
\nI thought it was just me, but it\u2019s also the landscape.
\nHere at the river of denial, I refuse the weather,
\nand people who drank like me have been hiding
\nin the bushes this whole time. The people who
\ndrank like Kathy just sent her a nice check from
\na bar she invested in years ago. And my inner
\nEileen says we won\u2019t get struck drunk. She hated
\nzoos and every penguin in town knew it. She
\nalso had pulmonary emphysema and was rescued
\nby inhaling and exhaling. She taught us not to think
\nabout thinking and how to die without dying.
\nWe are at war with the skunks. This inner protest
\nand hot head of cauliflower are part of the ritual.
\nI place my palm on the source of heat and prepare
\nto listen with my whole body. I begin with tubers
\nand work my way to the leafy greens then open
\nmyself up to the rage and wild onions climbing
\nover the fence to choke out the tree-of-heaven.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"