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Valerie Bacharach

There Must Be

Aunt Franzi’s Heavenly Highway by Lubo Kristek

souls trailing. silver
mists like snails or.
reflection. mirrors.
hung in hallways. papered
with empty. frames
of mother, father, son. silhouettes
loss. Do you believe in.
angels. after/life.
does one go. stay.
a haunting caress of. wind
against cheek. a remembered.
hand. scent.
lilacs. gardenias in autumn’s.
array of death. stars hang.
over ocean.
galaxies float.
across my vision.
a spider’s gossamer web.
Am I myth? Demeter
searching. Ariadne with her unwinding
red. string.
on my table. seashells.
the color of wine
& smoke.

 

About the writer:
Valerie Bacharach’s writing has appeared or will appear in Vox Viola, Vox Populi, Whale Road Review, The Blue Mountain Review, EcoTheo Review, Poetica, Kosmos Quarterly, and Amethyst Review. Her chapbook Ghost-Mother was published by Finishing Line Press in July 2021.

Image: Aunt Franzi’s Heavenly Highway by Lubo Kristek (1943- ). Oil on canvas. 32.2 x 32.2 inches. 1974-75. By free license.

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