Assisi: An Online Journal of Arts & Letters Volume 4, Issues 1 & 2 | Page 20

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APRIL SALZANO

BLACK-ASS PADDLE
That was the name for the weapon he made
by hand, the one he would never use
on his daughters (the son was somehow born
exempt), but would threaten to. The board
had become a thing of beauty, too
precise to serve so base a function. Belts
and 2x4’s were better suited to regular beatings.
He explained the physics behind the holes
he bore into the wood, to cut wind
resistance. The last word
was pure sugar on his tongue, a cause
and a punishment rolled into one word,
a position. If I were to see what happened
in that room, hear the screams in the early days,
the silence in the later days, would I
intervene? Or would I, like my mother,
go against the grain, resist
every natural splinter of instinct to protect
my children, turn tail and run
to save what was left of my own skin?

!!Assisi!!!14!