Iridescence
born of irritation,
the traditional gift
marking thirty years of marriage.
“Never much cared for pearls,”
she says, taking a drag on the lipstick-
stained cigarette that smells
like tomorrow’s dirty laundry.
They loved each other once,
before the grains of sand
got trapped in the nacre,
calcifying layer upon layer.
Nicotine and resentment
emanate from her pores,
like ribbons of steam
from a rusty kettle.
She taps the beads against her teeth,
testing their authenticity,
imagining the oysters
that produced them.
“I guess they’re the real thing,”
she says, exhaling a long puff of smoke,
wondering what gems
today’s irritants may yield.
Gloria Heffernan’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in over forty publications including: Chautauqua Journal, Columbia Review, Louisville Review, Stone Canoe, Jabberwock Review, The New York Times Metropolitan Diary, and Talking Writing. She received the 2016 Best Prose Award from Blood and Thunder, the literary journal of the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine. She teaches part-time at Le Moyne College in Syracuse and holds a Master’s Degree in English from New York University.
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