Part 32 (2/2)

If Daddy lived his final years in a haze, Mother's hazel eyes-when they were open those last days-stared at you sharp as a pair of ice picks

Who's the president? the doctor said, to deterh to say no to life support

Bill Clinton, she said

Who was the president before Clinton?

That asshole George Bush, she said, and before hian

She opened her eyes once to find Lecia powdering her nose while I caked on another load offixed up for? she said

The handso to exa her lips out-Put my lipstick on

Ten years, she's dead, and I still findfor the phone to call her She could no ravity or the moon

Sometimes when I walk the New York streets, I find in the occasional pedestrian's face arht rolls at different heights like pipes in solance offoff a shop, I see Mother's winged cheekbones and marble complexion that halthers, and if ever I miss her broad, sharecropper's hands, I have only to look atfrom the ends of my own arms, which are replicas of hers Good days, I seewe truly love is ever lost, no h fear and egois silly and worn out as a toddler posttemper tantrum

Every now and then we enter the presence of the numinous and deduce for an instant hoe're forht specifically run through us, wishi+ng only to lure us into our full potential Usually, the closest we get is e love, or when soalvanize you like steel and make resilient what had heretofore only been soft flesh (Dev, you gaveas the lion pads over to you, its jaws hinging open, its hot breath on you Even unto death

Mary Karr 2009 Pax Christi

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

From conception to forward, Courtney Hodell practiced her extraordinarythis book from my obstreperous psyche Without her and Jennifer Barth of HarperCollins andon the delivery table

My sister, Lecia Scaglione, and her husband, Toh innumerable hard stretches; so did Rodney Crowell, Don DeLillo, Dan Halpern, Robert Hass, Brooks Haxton, Terrance Hayes, Brenda Hille Saunders, Case Scaglione, J W Schenck, Mark Scher, Kent Scott, and Donna Zeiser My consigliore and champion, rabbi and hoes to keep me honest include my ever-patient family plus Joan Alway, Mark Costello, Doonie, Deborah Greenwald, John Holohan, Deb Larson, Thomas Lux, Patti Macmillan, and Tobias Wolff Special thanks to Elizabeth Auchincloss and Patricia Allen Spiritual guidance came from most of the above as well as Uwen Akpan, SJ; Father Joseph Kane; Sister Marisse May; and Matthew Roche, SJ

Writers granting the right to excerpt their lit'rary works gratis include Don DeLillo, Nick Flynn, Louise Gluck, Robert Hass, Brooks Haxton, Terrance Hayes, Sebastian Matthews, Heather McHugh, George Saunders, Charles Si Other permissions were valiantly rustled up by Chris Robinson and Jason Sack

About the Author

MARY KARR's first memoir, The Liars' Club The Liars' Club, kick-started a memoir revolution and won nonfiction prizes from PEN and the Texas Institute of Letters Also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, it rode high on the New York Ti an annual ”best book” there and for bestseller list for over a year, beco an annual ”best book” there and for The New Yorker, People The New Yorker, People, and Time Time Recently Entertainment Weekly Entertainment Weekly rated it number four in the top one hundred books of the past twenty-five years Her second memoir, rated it number four in the top one hundred books of the past twenty-five years Her second memoir, Cherry Cherry, which was excerpted in The New Yorker The New Yorker, also hit bestseller and ”notable book” lists at the New York Times New York Tienheim Fellow in poetry, Karr has won Pushcart Prizes for both verse and essays Other grants include the Whiting Award and Radcliffe's Bunting Fellowshi+p She is the Peck Professor of Literature at Syracuse University and dozens of other papers nationwide A Guggenheim Fellow in poetry, Karr has won Pushcart Prizes for both verse and essays Other grants include the Whiting Award and Radcliffe's Bunting Fellowshi+p She is the Peck Professor of Literature at Syracuse University

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