Ricardo Pau-Llosa
​​​Autumn 2017

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Exile

It was not the wife who turned to salt
for turning back, in awe and pity,
to furl the sail of a life,

but her daughters and husband
who would not obey the need
for history, a need like shelter.

So these salines would face
the cave and there dissolve
in the minutes that are ages

the sense that binds.  Within shot selves,
they sculpted the story of the brave one
and with fists of salt rubbed out her name.

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