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A patient's patience

​
Sancte Michael Archangele,
defende nos in proelio...

(recited until 1964)    
She wants me
              close enough
to cut off my tongue
and poison

              the hand with which I greet
my grandchildren

                            and vote.
Nothing pleases her vanity more

                            than eyes and fingers
with which to rewrite

              the collapse
                            of my lungs.
She can do it all

              ​but make me
breathe.

Sergio Ortiz is a retired English literature professor and bilingual queer poet. His recent credits include Spanish audio poems in GATO MALO Editing, an important Spanish Caribbean publication; Maleta Ilegal, a South American journal; Indolent Books' HIV HERE AND NOW. His poems are also forthcoming in Breath and Shadows and Unlikely Stories.
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  • Home
  • About
  • Rooms
    • Room 8
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    • Room 3
    • Room 2
    • Room 1
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