The Painted Bunting's Last Molt

<i>The Painted Bunting’s Last Molt</i> explores fatherhood, parenting, and separation anxiety; and the ways in which time and memory are both a prison and a giver of joy. Fifteen years in the making, Virgil Suárez’s new collection uses his mother’s return to Cuba after 50 years of exile as a catalyst to muse on familial relationships, death, and the passing of time.<b>Moon Decima</b>If it were the Eucharist, it’d be hard to swallow,this moon of lost impressions, a boy in deep water,something tickling his skin. This memory of weight-lessness—a kite that somehow still manages to hoverin the dog mouth blackness of sky. This is a cut outmoon of lost children, or is it a savior’s moon?This boy will float on home, or be swallowedby the water. Above the pines and mangroves,this moon hangs unrelenting. Is it the one eyeof an indifferent God that remains open just so?

Virgil Suárez is the author of four novels, a collection of stories, two memoirs, and eight poetry collections, and he has coedited two anthologies with his wife, Delia Poey. Most recently he has published an anthology of Latino poetry titledPaper Dance. Suárez is the recipient of a fellowship in poetry from the National Endowment for the Arts and a recipient of a Florida State Arts Grant.