BY NADJA MARIL
Copyright is held by the author.
THE DAY of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade I search my house for something green. On neighbour’s heads are green top hats and around their necks are shiny beads, but I’ve used my beads from previous years to transform the Valentine’s Day wreath on our door into a salute to the Irish and then I remember my green Notre Dame hoodie purchased on a cold day visiting my son, who now has children of his own, and put it on. Today I am alone, whereas the lady up the street has her golden retriever that she’s dressed in a green lacy tutu. Poor dog. I miss my dog. Musicians, soldiers, dancers, jugglers and politicians march past and the neighbour’s girls wearing green headbands with bouncing antennae reach out their hands for green bagels, flags, candy, and stickers. They fill up their bags and I see joy on their faces, sharing their transitory delight.
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Nadja Maril’s prose and poetry has been published in literary magazines that include, Lunch Ticket, Spry Literary Review and Across the Margin. Commuter Lit published her flash fiction story, “The Moment Before You Take Your Last Breath” in January 2024. Her chapbook Recipes from My Garden, a compendium of poems and short essays centred around herbs, a kitchen garden, and family memories was published September 2024 by Old Scratch Press. A former journalist and editor, Nadja has an MFA from Stonecoast at the University of Southern Maine and lives in Annapolis, Maryland, U.S. You can follow her “Addicted to Writing” posts on Substack https://nadjamaril.substack.com/ or to learn about her other books and publications visit Nadjamaril.com.
