Xconnect




Chinese Handcuffs

Amy Wright


                   "For in this world, time has three
                   dimensions, like space. Just as an object
                   may move in three perpendicular directions...so
                   an object may participate in three perpendicular
                   futures..Each future is real...In time, there are 
                   an infinity of worlds."   
                                          -Alan Lightman

A woman in a yellow beret
opens the refrigerator
and pulls a bottle of wine from the door
for the man she hasn't seen in five years
she called him yesterday
remembering the scar above his navel
and why he wouldn't wear glasses
He told her bad vision smoothes away
the lines between people's brows

A woman in a yellow beret
opens the refrigerator
and pulls a bottle of wine from the door
pouring it into a plastic Disney World cup
because all of the glasses are dirty
She drinks it in the kitchen to avoid
the man she once gave up cigarettes for
She's forgotten about the scar above his navel
and their daughter
who has his river-black hair
and hatred of detail

A woman in a yellow beret
opens the refrigerator
and pulls a bottle of wine from the door
missing the edge of the counter
she drops it on the grey-shelled linoleum
The man she has sex with is in the next room
He has hands like the one who's
eating hollow caves into her cheeks.



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