Nandarl from Laredo

By N.D. Etherly

NanDarl from Laredo is a poignant and paradoxical collection of poems focusing on the various facets and aspects of one womans life in Laredo, Texas. Obstacles such as prejudice, rape, infidelity, and despair stunt NanDarls growth both emotionally and spiritually.
N.D. Etherly weaves her eclectic and prevailing poems into a new tapestry, intertwining age-old conflicts with new-age perspectives, as she relates the story of an ordinary woman, NanDarl, whose strongest cord is resilience.
Morphing Nadine Hernandez from her fantasy fiction, Numbing Nadine, into NanDarl in NanDarl from Laredo, N.D. Etherly parallels her previous fiction with newly-published poetry to create a split persona of an obscure woman grappling with adultery and depression.
A powerful collection of unique poems, NanDarl from Laredo, is challenging, captivating, and empowering!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 29, 2013
• ISBN: 9781483620336

N.D. Etherly

N.D. Etherly is a poet, an artist, and a writer. She was born in Laredo, Texas and has worked at a variety of professions in Laredo: waitress, caretaker, teacher, and professor. She travels extensively throughout Texas and resides in her native Laredo. You can reach ND at [e-mail]

Book preview

Copyright © 2013 by N.D. Etherly

Cover Art by Nancy Herschap

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This poetry is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the poet’s/author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Rev. date: 05/24/2013

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

122280

Contents

1. Onychophangia

2. Turks Caps and Homes from Old Barracks

3. Riding on the Back of a Red Motorcycle

4. Voiceless

5. Nana Knew

6. Johnny Back from Nam

7. At Papa Gallos in Boys Town

8. Ermine Toys

9. Peccavi

10. Lupita

11. Write Three Lines

12. Before Bowing

13. Mediocrity

14. Whores

15. The Tall Man

16. Lover Mine

17. Words

18. Red Lips

19. The Arrow

20. The Stolen Books

21. Seesaws

22. Bench Players

23. Mother and Sunday

24. Flesh games

25. The Thorn Bleeds

26. Prayers

27. Carolyn Ann

28. Pennies

29. Fabricated Colors

30. Without the Withouts

31. Dolores Jean

32. Scowls and Howls

33. So un un un Alike Atticus

34. Ruses and Romances

35. This Octavio

36. Mallets and Pallets

37. Blessing Curses

38. Antoinette’s Wisdom: Reading Wide Sargasso Sea

39. Color

40. That Fun

41. Silly Women

42. Dry Beds

43. Triumph

44. Military Man

45. The Camera

46. The Currandera and Gonzalo

47. The Girl Like Maggie: Reading Recitatif

48. Get Out of Bed

49. Book Worms

50. The Writhing Woman

51. The Red Tea Kettle

52. Question

53. I Guess

54. Rust

55. The Test

56. The Jewelry Box

57. The Rubicon

58. The Resurrection

59. The Christmas List

60. Slow Kill

61. Woman’s Image

62. My Epitaph

For my daughters

Heather and Bridget,

I love you both so much.

Life would have been

so lonely without the two of you.

Life has been

so lovely with the both of you.

Onychophangia

The process of biting one’s nails

Carolyn bit her nails

to the quick

as a child.

She scratches her face

with her nails

as a woman.

She said

that Dolores and I,

when she was ten,

put black pepper on her bitten nails

while she lay sleeping.

She awoke later and rubbed her eyes;

That stings, she said

when we denied it.

Turks Caps and Homes

from Old Barracks

Lie in bed like your mother.

Lie in bed like your father.

Look out the windows

and gaze at your life.

You see

goatheads mixed in with St. Augustine grass

and hummingbirds hovering above

a row of bright red Turks Caps.

No air conditioning…

the kitchen sink doesn’t drain

and the silver outhouse,

knocked down when I was 6,

worked better

than the plugged-up toilet

in the house

that father built

from old army barracks.

Today I ripped up the shag