Member-only story
A Town of 10,000 Virgins
Title poem from my chapbook “Much More Than Time” which won the 2024 Slipstream competition.
Natalia buys the fanciest altar candle she can find,
lights it and places it at the base of the 10-foot-tall
statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe
down near the fishing docks
of this narcoleptic Mexican pueblo
hoping it will help her heal
and be whole and happy again.
The Virgin’s got seagull crap on her face.
We watch the men back-up
their boats and slip them into the water.
It is a sunny morning and the sea is as calm
as blue stationary
before the plastic is ripped off.
Other boats are already coming home
low and slow with their quota
of silver bullion
slimy and still in the big tubs of ice.
We walk over to the Malecon
where the vendors are piranha that don’t take no
for an answer
pushing junk at us
like useless medicine
and sunset cruises where the tourists get blasted
and the music booms so loud it breaks
the pelicans’…