I am proud to be able to claim Julie as a fellow citizen of Louisiana. She helps to brighten the state. Several of her "bartender" poems have been quoted here, but I'd like to add my favorite:
THE BARTENDER QUITS DRINKING
The Mater Dolorosa parking lot
is always full on Fridays during Lent.
I hear them chanting Stations of the Cross
as I double-park for the pastry shop,
the boozeless season giving us a bent
for doughnuts, candy, soda pop.
Twenty years ago, a schoolgirl, hot
in my coat, a lace mantilla on my head,
I swayed like them through Stations of the Cross,
Thinking about forbidden choc-
olate ice cream, and dreading the dinner ahead:
fishsticks parceled out in meager lots.
Though I am not one of the good who got
a smudge of ashes to make amends
to Jesus for his time on the cross,
it's funny how the drinking stopped
to coincide with the start of Lent.
I mark each sober day with a cross.
I come to joy in a season of loss.
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