Sunday Crossword Puzzle
by Andrea L. Alterman



All empty, waiting to be filled, I eat my pasta salad
from my bowl, and contemplate 29 across, 4 letters,
blank vu, and I know, I see it every Sunday when I
must face those unfilled squares, the unblacked ones
that need a vowel or a rare consonant, Z comes to mind
but it doesn’t happen often, S is usually fine for some,
yet for at least 10 minutes all it is is clues. Short words
first, a spoon of tomato atop farfalle next, 82 across, a
holy mlle. Ste without Marie and then an actress Hayak,
starts with S, how handy, Salma. One half hour later 30
across breaks it open with omelette, food item a cook might
flip, not pancakes or flapjacks, broken eggs scrambled,
layered with salsa, sprinkled with feta cheese, and flipped.
Then 100 down, phycologist’s study, not fungus or some
arcane branch of physics, algae although I’d like it to be
lichen. And finally, the larger answer which makes me groan,
“Here we Gauguin” on Sunday finding Cezanne near
Watteau while Dali waits for time to stop somewhere
close to Grand Central on Sunday in the crossword.





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