4 things rather unrelated

Deep at Knee

The dog’s descent was wobble hipped and left of dust. It passed about the cruiser, flickering then that corner of the home.

Whose is it? the smallest girl said.

He didn’t know and neither the girl’s two sisters. They stood on one foot or two, they sluicing candies in the mouth. I’m scared of it, one sister said, nods from another.

The smallest girl but left of dust too, in a moment passing at the cruiser, flickering that corner of the home.

Dad’ll be mad she gets bit, said one sister, shrugs from another.

The two then looked to break the tie by him. Though he’d never met the lot, the dad nor dog either.

~

Orphan orphaned or/metropole and periphery






















~

The Hotel’s 40th Floor

In the hot after the cool of the rain, he felt the long of the day. It was bright, and the sunny noise had a way of moving the curtain. Say, he said, to the girl that changed his bandage. Your hands are strong.

The girl frowned and patted once the top of her head. I don’t take compliments from patients, she said, returning to the bandage. The movement to the top of her head was the most deliberate thing he saw.

He looked at the long of the fingers and the chip of her polish. But it wasn’t a compliment, he answered. Or even much of an observation. It was my lips moving.

The girl stopped her work, put long hands to her side.

He watched her there not move. She did not move for one long moment. Her eyes were on about the place of his shins beneath a blanket.

Okay, she said and left with a movement of air. The next time she came in he was asleep and in his dream he was very kind and cool to her and in that dream she knew that much at least.

~

Brahma was (was not) a boy