Susan Isla Tepper has a Novella coming out shortly from Wilderness House Press.  A twenty-year writer, she has penned 14 published books of fiction and poetry and 7 Stage Plays. Honors include 25 Pushcart Prize Nominations, a win in the Francis Ford Copolla Zoetrope Contest for the Novel (2003), Second Place Winner in Story/South Million Writers Award and many more awards. Her play ‘The Crooked Heart’ concerning artist Jackson Pollock premiered on October 25, 2022, at the Irish Repertory Theatre in NYC. Adapted from an earlier novel, it was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Susan is a Brand Ambassador for The Galway Review.
http://www.susantepper.com

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Husband

By Susan Isla Tepper
 
I dig this ground here
to bury you here, so you
can come out
each night and hover, 
keeping me warm
through the winter 
in this post box.

How I long for
our deep feather bed
my perfume bottles lined up
on the dresser.

I’ve no chapel gates 
to set you down behind, 
nothing much 
thanks to your mishandlin’ 
of our affairs— 

Suppose I go back to the house
and find you not dead
but there in that very bed 
yet the floor creaking 
though I stand perfectly still.

Your lips opening and shutting
all cracked and crusted over— 
nothing coming out.  

I had no money to bury you
No priest, no casket lined with ivy
in which to lower your remains.
The money in your will
all tied up— you blaggard

I was ashamed

not able to afford a proper funeral, 

so I just bailed out. Cut. 
Done a runner as you would say.

Let me finish digging this hole
please leave me in peace 
at least until tomorrow.

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