Cuban babies up well past eleven, sucking on bottles and music.
Letting a small Italian woman with milky-blue eyes retell my life.
The tarot cards speak of swords and fools and death. I understand more than I let on. Maybe that could be a superpower.
My sister tells me in that old boat pub to not worry about giving my heart away. She says Jill you give the same amount of yourself to a stranger as you would to someone you love. She says don’t go changing but always remember that 4 quarters are better than 100 pennies in your purse.
We greet the frayed parts of ourselves when we gather.
My sister says it best that we’re our most us and I say it sideways when I say I feel too seen.
We all know how to get there and we all know the way home.
I stuff it in my pocket and let the nonna’s words fall into the seaweed.
Understanding that I can write my own cards and still heed advice.
We swap the love chore of collecting coffees in the morning and we share toothpaste, showers, birthday candles and cigars. We say we feel him everywhere but it means something different. My brother misses building forts in the woods. My mother misses being needed so unequivocally. My sister and I miss knowing we had more time to right a path.
I watch humanity crawl the boardwalk at sunset and we all know the words to Bohemian Rhapsody in that way that only happens in the folds.
Quiet superpowers with only the good quarters in my purse.
Jill Prendergast
Jill Prendergast has published three books of poetry and prose from anywhere but her writing desk in Santa Fe, NM. Her writing has been featured in Elephant Journal, Folk Rebellion, Sivana East, Snapdragon Journal, Linden Ave. Lit Journal, P.O.M.E., Santa Fe Literary Review, and local newspapers. She is a bookseller for the largest independent, women-owned shop in New Mexico and drinks too much coffee. She is best surrounded by books and bright pub conversation.
Originally East-coast born, Jill grew up in Minneapolis and did an out-of-body stint as a firefighter in VA. She received her AS in Outdoor Education from MT Hood College, OR, and her BA in Outdoor Sustainability Studies from Colorado Mountain College in Steamboat Springs, CO. She taught snowboarding and rock climbing in programs for Veteran and Adaptive Sports as well as children across the west coast. Most recently she interned with the Santa Fe Literary Review while working on her Creative Writing Certificate, learning how to avoid writing preciously.
Header image by Matthew Lancaster.
