“Bud’s Abalone Fence” by Pauline Moffitt Watts
“There are worse fates.
At least we didn’t end up
as some nacreous gimcrack souvenir:
‘Greetings From San Fran’ in mother-of-pearl.”
Enjoy this audio recording of “Siste, Viator” by Ann Lauinger from Vol. 34:3 of CALYX Journal! Buy your copy here!
Ann Lauinger’s books are Dime Saint, Nickel Devil (Broadstone Books, 2022), Against Butterflies (Little Red Tree, 2013), and Persuasions of Fall (U. of Utah, 2004), which won the Agha Shahid Ali Prize in Poetry. She is an emerita faculty member in literature at Sarah Lawrence College.
Photographer Pauline Moffitt Watts lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area where she grew up. She taught Renaissance History at Sarah Lawrence College and has lived in Rome and Florence. Her paintings, drawings, and photographs are often inspired by memories of time spent in Italy, and by the natural world she encounters on walks with her dog.