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Doren Damico

Spotlight: Inheriting Post-it Notes

February 19, 2018/in Amuse-Bouche, Amuse-Bouche 2018 / Doren Damico

[poetry]

I

June 25, 2013

i’m in Mom’s office
helping her pack
for her new home
the last home
where she’s going home
to die

I want you to have this
she says
handing me a yellow post-it
it’s a quote that she wrote

“In the end it’s not
the years in your life
that counts.
It’s the life
in your years.”
—Abe Lincoln

(my mother
was assassinated
by cancer)

II

we discover post-its
on books and in piles
post-its obsolete
crumpled and tossed
some post-its i learn
shouldn’t be lost
she bequeaths them
to her eldest daughter

“The love you leave behind
is the measure of your life.”

blue ink on hot pink
—Fred Small
i think

III

i take them in two hands
each delicate, sticky
colored leaf
reverently pondering
the adages and proverbs
mottos and maxims
like gold-filled cracks
of ceramic tea cups
in a tea ceremony
she’s teaching me
to celebrate everything
even old post-its

“If I’d followed all the rules
I’d never have gotten anywhere.”
—Marilyn Monroe

“u only live once
but if u do it right
once is enough”
—Mae West

but Mom, i say
you’re a Buddhist

IV

the last is sky-blue
and i read it aloud

“I have slipped
surly bonds of earth
and followed the birds
into the sun
with joy”

who wrote this? i ask
that’s my epitaph
says Mom

 

Doren Damico

Doren Damico is an artist, educator, and writer based in Los Angeles, California. Her first book, When You Can’t Scream… Or 10 Reasons Why I Smoke, includes poetry, photography, and an intimate narrative that explores her journey of trauma, acceptance, and healing. Doren’s poetry can also be found in: Coiled Serpent: Poets Arising from the Cultural Quakes and Shifts of Los Angeles, Nuclear Impact: Broken Atoms in Our Hands, and 2016 In The Words of Women International Anthology.

Photo by Alfredo Hidalgo
https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Doren-Damico-Photo-Credit_-Alfredo-Hidalgo_opt.jpg 400 275 Doren Damico https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/lunch-ticket-logo-white-text-only.png Doren Damico2018-02-19 10:20:222019-06-28 22:40:54Spotlight: Inheriting Post-it Notes

Amuse-Bouche Archive

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Friday Lunch Blog

Friday Lunch! A serving of contemporary essays published the second Friday of every month.

Today’s course:

Glitch Wisdom

May 12, 2023/in Blog / KJ McCoy
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Lessons on Getting Paid: My First Year as a Freelance Writer

April 14, 2023/in Blog / EJ Saunders
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How to Kill a Cat, or How to Prepare for CATastrophe

March 10, 2023/in Blog / Meghan McGuire
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Midnight Snack

Take a bite out of these late night obsessions.

Tonight’s bites:

The Secret Histories of Everywhere

June 2, 2023/in Midnight Snack / Brian Lynn
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Into the Linguistic Rabbit Hole

May 5, 2023/in Midnight Snack / paparouna
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Dancing into Detachment

April 7, 2023/in Midnight Snack / Robert Kirwin
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School Lunch

An occasional Wednesday series dishing up today’s best youth writers.

Today’s slice:

I’ve Stayed in the Front Yard

May 12, 2021/in School Lunch, School Lunch 2021 / Brendan Nurczyk
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A Communal Announcement

April 28, 2021/in School Lunch, School Lunch 2021 / Isabella Dail
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Seventeen

April 14, 2021/in School Lunch, School Lunch 2021 / Abigail E. Calimaran
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Our contributors are diverse and the topics they share through their art vary, but their work embodies this mission. They explore climate change, family, relationships, poverty, immigration, human rights, gun control, among others topics. Some of these works represent the mission by showing pain or hardship, other times humor or shock, but they all carry in them a vision for a brighter world.

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