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dancing girl press, 2015
$7.00
April Salzano teaches college writing in Pennsylvania where she lives with her husband and two sons. She is currently working on a memoir on raising a child with autism, along with several collections of poetry. Her work has been twice nominated for a Pushcart Award and has appeared in journals such as The Camel Saloon, Centrifugal Eye, Deadsnakes, Visceral Uterus, Salome, Poetry Quarterly, Writing Tomorrow and Rattle. The author serves as co-editor at Kind of a Hurricane Press (www.kindofahurricanepress.com).
The Girl of My Dreams
She is thin in the morning and fat by nightfall, loose seams tearing apart, death a wish that comes as much as it goes, a passing fancy, a fancy passing. She watches a string dance, umbilicus of dust laced from ceiling to cupboard, she is sure it is not the reverse. She watches it blow but never fall. Falling and mingling with the rest of the filth, it will go undetected. Her skin has a mouth that eats everything in sight. Careful, she thinks you look delicious. Dust bunnies romp in the garden of her dreams, unflowered, save the dandelions with all their heads popped off because of people who had babies and made rhyme out of reason, not the reverse. Laughter is her echo, a paralyzing fit of convulsions. She is contradicted. Look into the mirror. Her reflection is yours. Now read this backwards and see how lovely she is. |
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