Sunday, January 19, 2014

snow white


her skin was like porcelain, her eyes were sapphire blue and her features were sweet and kind. framing her face was a softly curled, silky mane of chocolate-y auburn hair that made her look like snow white- except she was tough. she could climb a 40 foot rigging like a monkey, spit and fight like one of the boys and never held her tongue if she felt passionate about something. she came from hardscrabble and had no interest in hiding it. however, her beloved came from the other side of the tracks. 6'2", blond and fair with a chiseled jaw and gentrified manner. he was softer of spirit, played lacrosse and belonged to the 'upper crust' country club set. their sex together was tender, complete, playful and filled with joy, but when they fought (which was often) they would go to the 10th round. he said over and over again that was a characteristic he didn't want in a woman, but she couldn't be anything other than what she was. there was a constant push and pull. they were drawn together by an undeniable attraction/romance and pulled apart by a basic difference in their respective approaches to conflict resolution/temperament when it came to the mundane negotiations of daily living. the time came when he was going to be married and he said to her, 'i can't be married to you. i can't be married to a woman i fight with like i fight with you. i have to be married to someone in my phylum- someone like me...'. her heart was broken, but she understood it because many times she had thought the same thing. they cried together, shared one last tender kiss and then parted ways- but not really. it was such a brief time between when he had made the declaration of his intent to marry another and when they had said goodbye that indeed, they were still crossing into each others lives. the day of the ceremony grew closer and she for some reason was part of it in terms of rigging or flowers or behind the scenes details. she had seen the woman and the woman was like the man in appearance; tall, gentrified, elegant, but there was a disconnect that she could feel. they looked like they belonged together but there was no 'thing' that connected them- nothing flowing or alive or beautiful. but again, they looked like they belonged together and the world thought that they belonged together and so she accepted that. each night in the time leading up to the marriage the knot in her stomach wrapped her into a ball and the sorrow in her breaking heart pushed tears out of her eyes. she wept helplessly and privately until all her tears were spent and she could not make a sorrowful sound. during the day she put on a brave face and accepted it outwardly. she never questioned him about his decision to marry the other woman. finally the day came and the man came to see her to say his final goodbye. the electricity between them was palpable. they looked at each other with eyes shining from brimming tears but none of the tears fell. they didn't touch and they barely spoke but he stammered, 'i have to, i have to be married.' it was something to do with his social standing or his family or family money....a tsunami of emotion closed her throat and would not let her speak, but she nodded that she understood. he said 'today. it's today..it has to be today..' he never referred to the woman he intended to marry by name. cut to snow white delivering the bridal bouquet to his intended. the woman was about to be kidnapped by 5 or 7 ninja/attackers. without hesitation, the little tough cookie snow white used her monkey boy skills to to kick the living shit out of every single assailant while the country club bride clutched her hands tightly and helplessly to her chest in frozen fear. the little snow white protected her without a thought to her own safety. at the end when all of the attackers had been laid to waste by her, the man entered and saw what she had done. she immediately turned away from him and walked fast and alone back into her life to climb the rigging again. she had climbed to the the 40th floor of a building when her phone vibrated in her pocket. it was someone saying 'he needs you to come to the church'. again, without hesitation she went. she crawled down the face of the building and made her way to the church. she walked up to the doors of the church and was pulled in and pushed down the isle by many hands. her paramour stood waiting for her with tears falling from his eyes. hiccuping from emotion, arms outstretched and in front of a full congregation he begged her to forgive him and he begged her to marry him. and she did

Monday, January 6, 2014

hot mess


i just wasn't ready. i hadn't combed my hair, put on make-up or remembered to wear my pants. i kept running all over the place trying to do my job and just ignore the fact that i was a hot mess, but everyone kept saying, 'shandra, what happened this morning?'. i decided to go sneak off and find a mirror to try and put myself together and when i finally saw my reflection, it was more horrifying than i could have imagined. i looked like i had been drugged and spent the weekend sleeping it off under a bridge somewhere near the mexican border. my hair was plastered to my head in some strange helmet-like fashion and my eyes looked like tiny hamster eyes- and of course, i still didn't have any pants. i untangled my hair with my fingers the best i could, washed my face with icy cold water and miraculously found some old mc hammer pants wadded up in a corner that i slipped on. i returned to the main area and just kept my head down. rosemary said, 'glad i remember to wear my pants!'

Sunday, January 5, 2014

angelyne


she was like an alien from another planet. a planet where the only movie ever shown was 'barbarella' and the only color allowed was pink and it was considered culturally taboo for a girl to ever grow into to a woman and become more than just a mildly sentient fleshlight for the male of the species.

i kept wondering how much foundation she applied to her enormous sagging fake décolletage every day so that it matched her sun starved pink face. every time she spoke she tilted her head to the side coquettishly and tried to make her voice sound like that of a child.

Saturday, January 4, 2014

helvetica


everyone traveled by foot as they followed the edge of the river. there were no cars anymore, but we still had the capacity to print on white shirts. not tees, olde timey shirts with cloth ties and crudely carved bone closures instead of buttons. obscure slogans and phrases that (presumably) only held meaning to the wearer (and never gave you any insight regarding the origins) were printed off center (sometimes a word or phrase would start in the center of the chest and finish in the back) making them even more difficult to read. black ink only (the only color we had left...) in various sizes of helvetica (apparently the only font still allowed). everyone seemed crabby and would only accidentally make eye contact with you as they passed. after a few hours of nudging by people in cryptically printed shirts, i'd come to the conclusion that the slogans weren't arcane at all, they were illiterate and utterly meaningless as anything other than ornamentation. when i shared my epiphany with my older traveling companion he stopped dead in his tracks and turned around to grab both of my shoulders. 'SHHHHHH!' my friend ordered, 'it's a dictate of the state. never let anyone know you can read or it will be bad for you. everyone is afraid of knowledge now and if the locals think you have any they'll burn you as a witch. 'people can't READ anymore?' i asked in a horrified whisper. he glared at me as another human animal approached to pass us on the path. now i knit my brows and held my head down like the others i had seen all day.

i began to plan my escape.

Friday, January 3, 2014

the assassin


she was an assassin on a mission- but unknown to her she had been compromised. the signal that meant 'all clear/begin' was when she pulled Raiders jersey over her tank. at that moment, the other 'plants' would then create a diversion which would allow her to move close enough to her target to execute him and then slip away. but the jersey (tucked beneath a dummy jersey and folded over a particular chair) she'd been left was steel grey, not black and had no identifying logo- none of which she was aware of until after she had slipped it on and felt the murderous intention in the room directed at her. her instincts exploded. in an instant she'd zeroed in on every mole with her in his mental scope and deftly melted into the tightly packed bodies of the gang members to shield herself. she was like water in those moments and her smile, sweet manner and flirtatious writhing allowed her move through the brick wall of homeboys until she found an open garage door and jumped like a gazelle over a cinder block wall into the inky black cover of night.