Exterminating Angel Press

Creative Solutions for Practical Idealists.

family

Grandfathered In.

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by Katherine Olsen.

The alcohol running through my veins
started in my grandfather’s.
Who said that my inheritance
would only come from grandma’s side?

I never understood why my father
would never watch us playing catch,
I couldn’t understand why mom
sent me off to grandpa, made me ask.

My skinned knees trophies of athleticism,
Light hair, blue eyes unlike his son,
But like himself. I charmed, I learned,
I shined, not stammered. I always won.

Now that I’m a woman he’s reverted
to the sixties when his wife handled the kids.
So now he sits and drinks and now my father,
sits sipping with him and reclaims what’s his.

Pop Song.

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by Virginia Bell. after Diane Seuss I met my father again in The Pleasure Chest on North Milwaukee, in the garden center on Clarke called Gethsemane, in a nightclub in Spain back when everyone was playing The Police on repeat, and he said to me, is that you, little chickadee, he said, like a monk […]

Compromise with the Air.

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by Marissa Bell Toffoli. The edge of the world glows in the evening, enchants city buildings. Take in the view from on high. Gossamer bridges span dappled bay water, the skyline floats above foundations. You stand like a lighthouse, rigid with responsibility, signaling endlessly from your precipice. Watch as a crow swoops through the scene. […]