Chez Robert Giron

Gargoyle 51, the 30th anniversary edition, edited by Richard Peabody and Lucinda Ebersole and published by Paycock Press, is nicely put together collection of poetry and fiction. Though it has taken me a while to get around to writing something about the edition, today's ice and snow day has given me the extra time I needed to tie up some lose ends.

As much as I would like to comment on everyone in the collection, I simply can't but I would like to highlight the following:

Naomi Ayala's poem entitled "Twelve Days" rings true to many of us who have Spanish ancestry and dear 'abuelas' (grandmothers) who will forever remain with us, even if gone from this plane, for "The last of this blood / is the last of my mother in me. / And she will never be here / to sing."

Tod Ibrahim, an Arlingtonian, also caught my attention as he writes about his father in "Decorating the Nursery During a War" and the difficulties he had as an Egyptian in Ohio.

Sad that even today, perhaps due to right-wing bigotry that has flourished under the Republican Regime, that many dark-skinned folk are still faced with untoward hostilities. I cringe at the hatred Americans continue to hurl at Hispanics/Latinos simply because they don't look like the "average American"--whatever that means.

As the Commonwealth of Virginia gets ready to celebrate its English historical legacy, how often people forget that everyone except an original American Indian is an "alien" by definition in the eyes of the original peoples of these United States.

With regard to the fiction in the collection, Pat MacEnulty's "The Cannibalized Woman" and Elizabeth Oness' "Spillover" merit mention both for the uniqueness and quality of their work.

Finally, Richard Peabody and Lucinda Ebersole continue to offer readers food for our literary stomachs and may they continue to do so as this magazine has become a legend in its own right.