As A Fire Blazes in The Notre-Dame Cathedral
OTTAVIA PALUCH
after Sharon Olds
It hangs in its cell, a purple-headed inmate
strangled by prison linens.
It moves when he moves, a police dog
in primal heat, frothing at the mouth, coarse hair
matted by semen and sweat — and every morning
in his presidential bed, it stands up
for the anthem, and he aims it
like a missile.
OTTAVIA PALUCH is a disabled high school student who lives in Ontario, Canada. A Gigantic Sequins Teen Sequin in 2018, her work is published or forthcoming in Four Way Review, Kissing Dynamite, Room Magazine, Alexandria Quarterly, and Ghost City Review, among other places. Paluch has studied poetry under Jessica Lynn Suchon during the 2019 Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship Program, as well as under Matt Mitchell during Flypaper Lit’s 2020 workshop on poetic forms.
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