WCW—Cathy Cavallone

Wednesday, July 6, 2016, 7 p.m.

Williams Center for the Arts
Cinema 3
One Williams Plaza, Rutherford NJ

Plus the words of William Carlos Williams & open readings from the floor

Cathy Cavallone has been a resident of Bergen County for much of her life and studied at Montclair State University. She has been writing for decades, but began pursuing it seriously in 2014. Her last feature was at the Classic Quiche in Teaneck, New Jersey. She has been published in The Rutherford Red Wheelbarrow, The New Verse News, Turk’s Head Review, Rose Red Review, Nerve Lantern, and elsewhere. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee and teaches English to middle school students.

Releasing the Burka

First, she will feel the caked earth
under mud huts seeping through
her blistered toes.
Then, the winds will wrap about her ankles
and coil up her splintered calves.
Next, her knees, like desert rocks,
will buckle and shake as she exposes
her heaving midriff to the flagrant sunlight.
Then, her breasts, like two ashen husks,
will quiver in the stagnant air. And finally, her eyes,
like landmines about to detonate onto the world,
will gaze upon the adumbration of where
a woman once stood.