January 14, 2019. The Fish, The Virgin, and the Lion by Jennie Orvino. Seems to have been self-published in 1972 with B&W photos by Barbara Gibson. Jennie has given birth to a daughter, Rachel, and is coming to terms with a side of herself that she had not previously felt - a lesbian nature. Barbara was more than a photographer in this scenario. As the poems in the collection reveal, and a page of photos of the two of them on a bed, innocently looking at the camera and then each other, this coming out was captured in real poetic time.
The collection was dedicated to daughter and husband but Barbara did get a special notice. In her bio on her website, all these years later, Jennie Orvino mentions that she lived in Milwaukee for 10 years. But that's all she mentions. No husband. No daughter. No coming out. Just the time she spent in the city. Scrubbed of their importance in her live. Or why she moved to California, where she still lives.
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