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Heather Altfeld, a finalist in Narrative’s Fifth Annual Poetry Contest, was also a second-place winner of the Dora and Alexander Raynes Poetry Prize. She earned a BA in anthropology and writing from Columbia University and an MFA in poetry from California State University. Altfeld lives in Chico, California.

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From “The Last Will and Testament of the Orphelines”

by Heather Altfeld
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This is the kind of good-bye
that has always welted our hearts.


Our cocoa is gone
and our dreams are being eaten by mice.
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Reader Comments

  • Lovely poem, my sweet friend. I'm very proud of you and...
  • Heather speaks to me wisps and truths, wrapped in memory and...
  • Beautiful. Surreal. I want to remain dizzy by her images and...

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Narrative is a nonprofit
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