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Pablo Otavalo

The public oils
a letterpress


“I wonder for a moment what animal I am.”

  • Laryssa Wirstiuk
It is not unconditional. Silk
takes to dye easy
once vigorously worked.  Milk
boiled and rubbed gently
over leather will clean it
excellently. In a cotton
 
washcloth add a spoon
of salt to dry oatmeal
as an exfoliating scrub. Marie
Curie was months away
from earning her second Nobel
when her letters to Paul
 
Langevin were purloined
by a detective and made public
by his wife Jeanne Desfosses
Langevin. 1911.
 
The mob
that broke out threw stones
 at Marie’s house, through her
windows, unknowingly at her
daughters, huddled inside.
                                                             They called Marie a home wrecker.
 
            In a poorly ventilated dissecting room
            with a leaky roof, rather a shed next to the École Normale’s School
            of Physics, Marie investigated the conductivity of air
           
            around samples of uranium,  published

            first on thorium’s radioactivity and out of pitchblende
            extracted polonium and radium. 1897.
 
She shared ¼ of the Nobel in Physics
in 1903, but the 1911 Nobel in Chemistry
was all hers for her isolation
 
 of radium in its pure metallic state
and her research into its decay
demonstrating the transmutation
of one element to another,
 
                                                   once the dream of alchemists,
                                                   a reality.
 
“Don't let yourself be touched
by a crisis of crying and tears. Think of the saying
about the crocodile who cries because he has not
eaten his prey, the tears of your wife are of this kind."
                                                                                              
                                                                                               - Marie Sklodowska-Curie 1911

 
       For so long she had worn a severe
       black dress after her husband’s death
       but on a warm April night Marie donned
       a white satin gown with a single
       pink rose pinned to her waist. 1910.
                                                                                      After she began to suspect, Jeanne
                                                                                      confronted Marie and ordered her
                                                                                      to leave France immediately or die.
                                                                                                                                                       She refused.
       Her papers, even her cookbooks,

       are deemed too dangerous to handle
       and are kept in lead-lined boxes.
                                                                              “If the rabble continues to occupy itself with you, then
                                                                              simply don’t read that hogwash, but rather leave it to
                                                                              the reptiles for whom it’s been fabricated.

                                                                                           With most amicable regards to you and Langevin,
                                                                              yours very truly,”

                                                                                                                                   —A. Einstein 1911
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
*Cited: Spend Low, Live High/ Catherine Morsink, Granny & Granddad’s Household Encyclopedia/ John O’Neon, Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie/ Barbara Goldsmith, A Short History of Nearly Everything/ Bill Bryson, NobelPrize.org, http://einsteinpapers.press.princeton.edu/vol8-trans/34



--

­­Pablo Otavalo is from Cuenca, Ecuador but now lives and writes in Chicago. He is a recipient of the 2013 & 2014 Illinois Emerging Poet prize and is currently nominated for an Illinois Arts Council Literary Award. His work has recently appeared or been featured by Rhino, Jet Fuel Review, Structo Magazine, Ninth Letter, and Tupelo Press. He is an avid chess player and is currently emotionally vulnerable. He can be found at pablootavalo.com and he is currently still reading Mark Doty's Atlantis.  ­­

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  • Home
  • About
    • Our Story
    • Masthead
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    • Submission Guidelines
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  • Features
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  • Issue #23 Spring 2022
    • Issue #23 Art Spring 2022 >
      • Jonathan Kvassay Spring 2022
      • Karyna McGlynn Spring 2022
      • Andrea Kowch Spring 2022
      • Layla Garcia-Torres Spring 2022
    • Issue #23 Poetry Spring 2022 >
      • Robin Gow Spring 2022
      • T.D. Walker Spring 2022
      • Jen Schalliol Huang Spring 2022
      • Yvonne Zipter Spring 2022
      • Carrie McGath Spring 2022
      • Lupita Eyde-Tucker Spring 2022
      • Susan L. Leary Spring 2022
      • Kate Sweeney Spring 2022
      • Rita Mookerjee Spring 2022
      • Erin Carlyle Spring 2022
      • Cori Bratty-Rudd Spring 2022
      • Jen Karetnick Spring 2022
      • Meghan Sterling Spring 2022
      • Lorelei Bacht Spring 2022
      • Michael Passafiume Spring 2022
      • Jeannine Hall Gailey Spring 2022
      • Phil Goldstein Spring 2022
      • Michael Mingo Spring 2022
      • Angie Macri Spring 2022
      • Martha Silano Spring 2022
      • Vismai Rao Spring 2022
      • Anna Laura Reeve Spring 2022
      • Jenny Irish Spring 2022
      • Marek Kulig Spring 2022
      • Jami Macarty Spring 2022
      • Sarah A. Rae Spring 2022
      • Brittney Corrigan Spring 2022
      • Callista Buchen Spring 2022
      • Issam Zineh Spring 2022
      • MICHAEL CHANG Spring 2022
      • henry 7. reneau, jr. Spring 2022
      • Leah Umansky Spring 2022
      • Cody Beck Spring 2022
      • Danyal Kim Spring 2022
      • Rachel DeWoskin Spring 2022
    • Issue #23 Fiction Spring 2022 >
      • Melissa Boberg Spring 2022
    • Issue #23 Nonfiction Spring 2022 >
      • Srinaath Perangur Spring 2022
      • Audrey T. Carroll Spring 2022
  • Issue #24 Fall 2022
    • Issue #24 Art Fall 2022 >
      • Marsha Solomon Fall 2022
      • Edward Lee Fall 2022
      • Harryette Mullen Fall 2022
      • Jezzelle Kellam Fall 2022
      • Irina Greciuhina Fall 2022
      • Natalie Christensen Fall 2022
      • Mark Yale Harris Fall 2022
      • Amy Nelder Fall 2022
      • Bette Ridgeway Fall 2022
      • Ursula Sokolowska Fall 2022
    • Issue #24 Poetry Fall 2022 >
      • William Stobb Fall 2022
      • e Fall 2022
      • Stefanie Kirby Fall 2022
      • Lisa Ampleman Fall 2022
      • Will Cordeiro Fall 2022
      • Jesica Davis Fall 2022
      • Peter O'Donovan Fall 2022
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      • Barbara Saunier Fall 2022
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      • Nick Rattner Fall 2022
      • Cynthia Schwartzberg Edlow Fall 2022
      • Summer J. Hart Fall 2022
      • Daniel Suá​rez Fall 2022
      • Sara Kearns Fall 2022
      • Millicent Borges Accardi Fall 2022
      • Liz Robbins Fall 2022
      • john compton Fall 2022
      • Esther Sadoff Fall 2022
      • Whitney Koo Fall 2022
      • W. J. Lofton Fall 2022
      • Rachel Reynolds Fall 2022
      • Kimberly Ann Priest Fall 2022
      • Annie Przypyszny Fall 2022
      • Konstantin Kulakov Fall 2022
      • Nellie Cox Fall 2022
      • Jennifer Martelli Fall 2022
      • SM Stubbs Fall 2022
      • Joshua Bird Fall 2022
    • Issue #24 Fiction Fall 2022 >
      • Otis Fuqua Fall 2022
      • Hannah Harlow Fall 2022
      • Natalia Nebel Fall 2022
      • Kate Maxwell Fall 2022
      • Helena Pantsis Fall 2022
    • Issue #24 Nonfiction Fall 2022 >
      • Courtney Ludwick Fall 2022
      • Anna Oberg Fall 2022
      • Acadia Currah Fall 2022
  • Issue #25 Spring 2023
    • Issue #25 Art Spring 2023 >
      • David Carter Spring 2023
      • Annabel Jung Spring 2023
      • Ryota Matsumoto Spring 2023
      • Leah Oates Spring 2023
      • Eve Ozer Spring 2023
      • Emily Rankin Spring 2023
      • Esther Yeon Spring 2023
    • Issue #25 Poetry Spring 2023 >
      • Emma Bolden Spring 2023
      • Ronda Piszk Broatch Spring 2023
      • M. Cynthia Cheung Spring 2023
      • Flower Conroy Spring 2023
      • Jill Crammond Spring 2023
      • Sandra Crouch Spring 2023
      • Satya Dash Spring 2023
      • Rita Feinstein Spring 2023
      • Dan Fliegel Spring 2023
      • Lisa Higgs ​Spring 2023
      • Dennis Hinrichsen ​Spring 2023
      • Mara Jebsen ​Spring 2023
      • Abriana Jetté ​Spring 2023
      • Letitia Jiju ​Spring 2023
      • E.W.I. Johnson ​Spring 2023
      • Ashley Kunsa ​Spring 2023
      • Susanna Lang ​Spring 2023
      • James Fujinami Moore Spring 2023
      • Matthew Murrey Spring 2023
      • Pablo Otavalo Spring 2023
      • Heather Qin ​Spring 2023
      • Wesley Sexton ​Spring 2023
      • Ashish Singh ​Spring 2023
      • Sara Sowers-Wills ​Spring 2023
      • Sydney Vogl ​Spring 2023
      • Elinor Ann Walker Spring 2023
      • Andrew Wells Spring 2023
      • Erin Wilson Spring 2023
      • Marina Hope Wilson ​Spring 2023
      • David Wojciechowski Spring 2023
      • Jules Wood Spring 2023
      • Ellen Zhang Spring 2023
      • BJ Zhou Spring 2023
      • Jane Zwart Spring 2023
    • Issue #25 Fiction Spring 2023 >
      • Eleonora Balsano Spring 2023
      • Callie S. Blackstone Spring 2023
      • Daniel Deisinger Spring 2023
      • CL Glanzing Spring 2023
      • Janine Kovac Spring 2023
      • Jeremy T. Wilson Spring 2023
      • Richie Zaborowske Spring 2023
    • Issue #25 Nonfiction Spring 2023 >
      • Kalie Johnson Spring 2023
      • Amanda Roth Spring 2023