Laura DiCarlo Short
Reader. Writer. Teacher. Homeschooling Mom.
Laura DiCarlo Short is a writer and teacher living in Georgetown, Texas. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Texas State University and her poems, stories, interviews, and essays have appeared most recently in The Knicknackery, The Literati Quarterly, Front Porch Journal, and Able Muse, among others. Her poem “Cypress Trees Stretch” was a finalist in the 2017 Adalaide Literary Award and appeared in their annual anthology. She has taught writing and literature at Texas State University, Alamo College, and Concordia University.
Publications
In “Reflections on Vers Libre,” T. S. Eliot argues against the possibility of verse without meter, saying there is only “good verse, bad verse, and chaos.” Eliot asserts that the best uses of verse have been those in which the meter has been so mastered as to cause a departure from strict observance.
Tell me, Abuela, in what place do you put your little / house, your arms full of grasses, your gashes, stinking / in a green sun.
What can I tell you about her? Aunt Rachel loved to sing, her hands were fair and soft, she wore long, old-fashioned dresses to cover a nasty scar on her knee. Aunt Rachel and her brother and some cousins. They were all around seventeen or eighteen and fighting over a lost bet. I don’t remember the details. A hundred dollars was on the line and Uncle Johnny’s reputation.