The ( ) of Purity, by Neil de la Flor

after Maritza Molina

1. Seven tree trunks. Two altars. Three naked women.

2. A fourth naked woman covered in powdered sugar kneels

at an altar covered in powdered sugar.

3. The sadistic forest fears women.

4. Simultaneously holy and unholy,

5. we conceptualize the world upside down

6. as a bat beautifully colors your eyes

7. blue.

***

Neil de la Flor is a Miami-based writer, teacher, and photographer. His publications include An Elephant’s Memory of Blizzards (forthcoming Marsh Hawk Press, 2013); Sinead O’Connor and her Coat of a Thousand Bluebirds (Firewheel Editions, 2011),co-authored with Maureen Seaton and winner of the Sentence Book Award; Almost Dorothy (Marsh Hawk Press, 2010), winner of the Marsh Hawk Press Poetry Prize; Facial Geometry (NeoPepper Press, 2006), co-authored with Maureen Seaton and Kristine Snodgrass; and Two Thieves and a Liar (forthcoming, Jackleg Press, 2013), also co-authored with Maureen Seaton and Kristine Snodgrass. He is also the performance arts journalist for KnightArts, an organizational blog maintained by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and contributes to Miami-based arts bureau, Art Burst Miami. Neil is not a magician but he can be reached at www.neildelaflor.com.

Check out Burning Up, also by Neil de la Flor (Issue 5)