By Elisabeth Murawski

Featured Art: “Mr. Love” by Leo Arkus

An adult neither liked 
nor disliked, 

she taught music 
appreciation, 

played 78s of Verdi  
and Bizet. 

Teens in letter 
sweaters, we were 

the children 
she didn’t care 

to know. A thin 
gold band on a red- 

nailed finger 
declared she’d snagged 

a Mr. Love 
so long ago we  

weren’t even born. 
She seemed resigned 

as our parents were 
to not going  

anywhere, tapping  
her black shoe 

like a metronome 
while reckless Carmen 

goaded Don Jose, 
Radames and Aida  

smothered 
in the tomb scene. 

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Elisabeth Murawski is the author of Heiress, Zorba’s Daughter (May Swenson Poetry Award), Moon and Mercury, and three chapbooks. Still Life with Timex won the Robert Phillips Poetry Chapbook Prize. A native of Chicago, she currently lives in Alexandria, VA.