Sometimes my father’s hand shakes, sends fat drops of paint to splatter my patio. He’s fond of this work, and I like the way this man feels in the sun, healthy and honest and responsible. I work next to him on the shorter ladder, my hair sticky against my neck. He says, This heat’s a …
You know what I’m talking about, you’ve seen the headlines too–how So and So Collapses in an airport, a doctor diagnoses exhaustion–how So and So goes away to rest, to reclaim some sense of self. I always imagined this luxury of tiredness affordable only to the rich, movie stars and rock ‘n’ roll celebrities, people …
I know you’ve come from some other woman. The New Orleans night is all over your clothes. You’ve watched me come out of mine with the calculation you give things earned and now owned. See these thick breasts once a high and proud prize in Georgia. See these blue laced legs known early as the …
“Y’all have no idea how much it costs to look this cheap.” –Dolly Parton I, too, believe in makeup, believe in the luxurious artifice of color that couldn’t possibly come from within. I want my eyelashes as long as spiders’ legs, my cheeks the startled tones of too much– sun, drink, fevered loving–and my mouth …