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YOU DO NOT HAVE HEAVEN IN YOUR ATTIC

Poetry by Paula Persoleo
You have ancient artifacts:
the toy box shaped like a giant
strawberry, porcelain dolls
never played with, a not-faux toddler’s 
fur coat, every grade school notebook,
exam, award received. You have
inheritance: three cribs from three
generations, old pennies found
while working at the store, a silk shirt
worn once by Grandmother,
the roll-top desk that doesn’t fit 
anywhere downstairs. You have
Christmas ornaments and tree angels, silver
spoons from the thrift store, the afghan
your favorite aunt crocheted, a thousand
or so pens never returned to friends—treasures.
 
You do not have heaven. You do not
have firmament. No zephyr, no sky.
You have an attic, filled. The chimney
releases smoke signals every night.
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Paula Persoleo

Paula Persoleo is a 2002 graduate of Washington College and a 2011 graduate of Stony Brook’s MFA program in Southampton, NY. Some of the poets she worked with include Julie Sheehan, Thomas Lux, and Michelle Whittaker. She currently is an adjunct professor at the University of Delaware and lives in Delaware with her husband.

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