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The Moirologists

4/18/2016

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                          (I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters:
                               to you they have showed some truth.
                                                         Macbeth, 2.1.20-21)


In Hindi they were called Rudaali,
lower caste women paid to lament the dead.
They followed shrouded corpses
through the dawn streets

beyond city walls, standing by furrowed
red soil, wailing and scattering
the crows.    

In Ireland they were keeners; for a coin
with a bronze moon they wept
beside the sheeted dead from early dark
through the interminable Gaelic night.
 
It is a primeval thing,
believing that women hold what is sacred
and know the ways of loss,
but there are those who learned to mourn
at the feet of Death.
 
Better to pay for them and their magic,
to venerate with one hand and take away
with the other. Every coin is a reduction--
 
But Weird Sisters follow the one who pays.
The dust from his shoes falls down
an hourglass, his food is borrowed.      
 
He will be followed to the grave by the Rudaali;
behind them will come three black nuns.
Beneath the earth his eyes will be opened;
every penny he paid for grief will lie
 
acrid on his tongue. Shades
of his sisters unmourned will stand
over him like crows, wailing
to call out the jackals.

​
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    Kristin Roedell

    Kristin Roedell is a retired attorney and Northwest poet. Her work has appeared in over 60 journals and anthologies, including Switched on Gutenberg, Damselflypress, Crab Creek Review, and The Journal of the American Medical Association. She is the author of Girls with Gardenias, (Flutter Press), and Downriver (Aldrich Press).  She has been nominated for both Best of the Web and the Pushcart Prize. She was the 2013 winner of NISA’s 11th Annual Brainstorm Poetry Contest and a finalist in the 2013 Crab Creek Review poetry contest. Down River was a finalist in the Quercus Review Press poetry prize. She lives in Lakewood Washington with her husband and two daughters.

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  • Fall
    • Tayler Karinen
    • Benjamin Lindsey
    • Patrick Harrington
    • Rich Ives
    • Kelly Kotewa
    • Craig Rodgers
    • Laura Fletcher
    • Jen McConnell
    • Remi Skytterstad
  • Past Issues
    • YEAR ONE >
      • Issue 1: October >
        • Dalton Day
        • Camila Maldonado
        • Elizabeth Burton
        • Daniel Kay
        • Shelby Bevins-Sullivan
        • Ryan Havers
      • Issue 2: November >
        • Rob Sturma
        • Candi V. Auchterlonie
        • Christopher Mulrooney
        • William James
        • Andrew Rhys Young
        • Michael Cormack
        • Kayla Pongrac
      • Issue 3: December >
        • Ann Huang
        • Peter Vanderberg
        • John Sweet
        • Daniel von der Embse
        • Rebecca Dutsar
        • Sarah Kersey
        • Geramee Hensley
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        • Stacey Balkun
        • Nolan Liebert
        • Charles Bane Jr.
        • Carly Gordon
        • Yoni Hammer-Kossoy
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        • Joseph Lisowski
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        • Lydia Havens
        • William Butler
        • Robert A. Kaufman
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        • R. G. Evans
        • John Pistelli
        • Hannah Brown
        • Carl Boon
        • Christine Nichols
        • Joshua Robert Long
      • Issue 14: November >
        • Rushda Rafeek
        • John Grabski
        • Naima Woods
        • Peter Burzynski
        • Kathleen Radigan
      • Issue 15: December >
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        • Darren C. Demaree
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      • Issue 16: January >
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        • Charles Freeland
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        • Jefferson Navicky
        • Mehrnoosh Torbatnejad
        • Simon Perchik
      • Issue 24: September >
        • Sally J. Johnson
        • Lewis Mundt
        • April Vázquez
        • Emma Hutson
    • YEAR THREE >
      • Issue 25: October >
        • Peter Weltner
        • Nicholas Morris
        • Ola Faleti
        • Phoebe Nicholson
      • Issue 26: November >
        • Effy Fritz
        • Maxwell Radwin
        • David Atkinson
        • Eddy Jordan
      • Issue 27: December >
        • Jon Bennett
        • Stephanie Valente
        • Leigh Cheak
      • Issue 28: January >
        • Adrienne Novy
        • John Grabski
        • Fay Sachpatzidis
        • Paulie Lipman
        • Sarah David
      • Issue 29: February >
        • Ron Gibson Jr.
        • Amanda Kabak
        • Travis Naught
        • Allen Forrest
        • Susan Monaghan
      • Issue 30: March >
        • Hannah Larrabee
        • ​Lino Anunciacion
        • Karese Burrows
        • Reneé Bibby
        • Liz Howard
        • Kalani Pickhart
      • Issue 31: April >
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        • Daniel Blokh
        • Benjamin Harnett
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        • Terry Ann Wright
        • Craig Loomis
        • Thaddeus Rutkowski
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        • Alex Ivey
        • Hazem Fahmy
        • Jennifer Moore
      • Issue 34: July >
        • Christine No
        • Sarah Destin
        • Claire Hopple
        • Maura Lee Bee
      • Issue 35: August >
        • Luisana Cortez
        • Aza Pace
        • Carrie Chappell
        • Adam Lock
      • Issue 36: September >
        • Jill Mceldowney
        • Leon Kortenkamp
        • Sarah Jones
        • Darren Demaree
    • YEAR FOUR >
      • Issue 37: October >
        • Hannah Stone
        • William Doreski
        • Sarah Wetzel
        • C. T. Salazar
      • Issue 38: November >
        • Kristen Ploetz
        • Stephanie Rael
        • Brittany Frederick
        • Jay Sheets
        • Andy Cashmore
      • Issue 39: December >
        • Taylor Mali
        • Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz
        • John Williams
        • Iskandar Haggarty
        • Donald Hubbard
        • Kenneth Otani
        • Alex Miller
      • SPRING >
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        • Lino Anunciacion
        • Colleen Rich
        • Donia Mounsef
        • Nitzan Meltzer Watman
        • Ann Hillesland
        • DJ Swykert
      • SUMMER >
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        • Heidi Seaborn
        • Daniel Nester
        • Ginnah Howard
        • Jonathan Bracker
      • FALL >
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        • Laura Bentley
        • Ally Ang
        • Kurt Luchs
        • Joanna Hoffman
      • Winter >
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        • Emma Wang
        • Maria McLeod
        • Darren Demaree
        • Susan J. Mitchell
      • SPRING >
        • Sandra Kolankiewicz
        • Michael O'Neill
        • Lino Anunciacion
        • Katherine Fallon
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