University of Northern Iowa

RenovationAuthor(s): CARRIE SHIPERSSource: The North American Review, Vol. 294, No. 3/4, Annual Summer Fiction Double Issue(MAY–AUGUST 2009), p. 66Published by: University of Northern IowaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20697807 .

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A R

CARRIE SHIPERS

Renovation

?for Emily and Erica

The pickaxe he bought for my birthday, pitchfork when he proposed. A power saw at Christmas. On our first anniversary?

sheetrock, nail gun, boxes of tile. All the time he was dying I held his love in my hands, unrolled plans across his lap. His x-rays

read like blueprints?here a tumor, here a fireplace, bay window seat, sickness the surgeons couldn't reach. I brought him home

to watch me build, muffled my hammer, worked mostly when the morphine did. After he died, I sleepwalked, woke holding

tools to cut or burn or dig. I tore up beds of tulips, taped an X on antique glass and tapped its center. My grief cut wires, twisted pipes,

set fires I barely found in time. Awake, I built our home. Asleep, his monument.

EILEEN WIEDBRAUK

Fireworks

I don t remember where she was from, it's wrong of me I know, but I don't remember;

It was the Fourth of July and I asked her if they had fireworks like this where she was from and she said no. At home, she said, we have men that fire guns into the air and then the bullets come down and kill people.

Oh, I said. It's a lovely display this year, don't you think?

FAITH SHEARIN

Solo

It's easier than I think. The bed holds the shape of a valley and the space beside me

is a hill. Or, on the front porch in morning, I am touched by objects: tea glass,

straw chair, light filtered by the fingers of a tree. My shirt has the weight of a kiss.

Nuns and monks live this way: robes, habits, their mouths full of wine and prayer.

My hands have been licked by wild dogs. I have been loved by cities: warm cab rides

to darkened theaters, museums with rooms

of nudes. Sunbathing, I have been remade

by tongues of light. In this cottage, ocean in my window, wind like a tea kettle,

I am a lovely cup.

66 NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW May-August 2009

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