Sveti Lovro (Saint Lawrence )
My aunt remembers the pig’s head, crisped eyelids lowered, as if drunk,
potatoes pouring from its mouth
like candies
Now, she roasts pork shoulder, saves its juice
for another meal
She resembles the photo
of herself on the wall fifty years before
Cigarette in hand, she insists, It’s just
something to keep my hands busy
She identifies with the patron saint of cooks and comedians. We both suffered
so much, she says, recalls the time
she collected snails and put them in a barrel to purge their bowels
Boiled and buttered, They were delicious
Later: antennae afloat in her vomit
Towards martyrdom, Lovro’s body singed on the gridiron. The saint exclaimed
This side’s done—turn me over.
In her apartment, sun shines upon her oven-marred forearms
while she washes a plastic bag for future use
She laughs, as she often does when she speaks of her pain
We all have to die sometime
potatoes pouring from its mouth
like candies
Now, she roasts pork shoulder, saves its juice
for another meal
She resembles the photo
of herself on the wall fifty years before
Cigarette in hand, she insists, It’s just
something to keep my hands busy
She identifies with the patron saint of cooks and comedians. We both suffered
so much, she says, recalls the time
she collected snails and put them in a barrel to purge their bowels
Boiled and buttered, They were delicious
Later: antennae afloat in her vomit
Towards martyrdom, Lovro’s body singed on the gridiron. The saint exclaimed
This side’s done—turn me over.
In her apartment, sun shines upon her oven-marred forearms
while she washes a plastic bag for future use
She laughs, as she often does when she speaks of her pain
We all have to die sometime
September 2025
Leanne Dunic is a multidisciplinary artist. She’s the fiction editor at Tahoma Literary Review and the leader of the band The Deep Cove. Her most recent works include a book of lyric prose and photographs entitled Wet (Talonbooks 2024) and the chapbook Salt Rich (Small Harbor Publishing 2024). Leanne lives on the unceded and occupied Traditional Territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations.
Art: Ellen June Wright, Diptych #1306, #1509, watercolor on paper