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  Andrew Riutta

 

 

A.A. meeting

 

“You don’t have to believe in God,

just a higher power.”

So I sip black coffee and stare

out the window . . .

Only those weeds that are tallest 

are bent by the wind.

folded in prayer
my hands make
one big fist

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Andrew Riutta was born and raised in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. He is a recent recipient of the William J. Shaw memorial prize for poetry, and in 2007, his first full-length poetry collection, Cigarette Butts and Lilacs, was published by Modern English Tanka Press. Along with H. Gene Murtha, he is co-editor of the new short poetry webzine, “Haikosis” http://haikosis.webnode.com/ Both he and his nine-year-old daughter, Issabella, enjoy eating pancakes and walking in cemeteries.

  

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