\nWord Count: 385<\/p>\n
My mother and father were screamers, several decibels louder than anyone ever needed to be. Intensity, importance, all layered on top of whatever was said just by shivering the curtains a bit, or moving the walls. My sister and I would hide in the bathroom, hunkered down in the tub. We\u2019d seen on TV how that\u2019s where you run when there\u2019s a tornado warning. Only we never learned to read warnings and ran when the rooms spun around.<\/p>\n I pass people slithering through the openings in the noon-crowded walk between banks, lunches, jobs. I\u2019m slithering too but the wrong way it seems; those coming at me are stronger in number, more violent in their thoughts. One man dared me to touch him. One woman shrank from my accidental touch. It\u2019s all in the eyes and I\u2019m guessing and learning the language a blink at a time.<\/p>\n I caught the man\u2019s eye just as I was pulling open the door to my office building. He turned his head but kept on walking by. He was with another man his age in conversation, nodding but arguing, the way words can let you do. I\u2019d like to fuck you seven ways to Sunday,<\/em> he said to me. I don\u2019t think his friend caught that in their conversation. I\u2019m not sure what I answered but I stood there with the door wide open even after he\u2019d faced forward, falling back into place as only a piece inside the puzzle of the crowd.<\/p>\n All day I repeat what the man had said to me, wondering if I got it right. It sounds so familiar that after a while I wonder if I made it up in my head. In that area of brain that lurks in the frontal lobe.<\/p>\n That night I look at myself naked in the mirror. I stare into my eyes. I look like my father in some ways. I have his dark hair and deep-set eyes. It comes slowly, but it comes to me then. Where I\u2019d heard the words before.<\/p>\n ~~<\/p>\n Photo from Dorothee Lang’s Day 20 Cubes<\/a>, a little messed with (distorted, as is life), after inspiring this piece for me today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" SPEAKING IN TONGUES Word Count: 385 What is she saying? The girl who is taking my money and giving me change. Yes, yes, Thank you and have a nice day, but there\u2019s something else too, when we listen with our … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/020.jpg\" "\\"020\\"")
<\/a>What is she saying? The girl who is taking my money and giving me change. Yes, yes, Thank you and have a nice day<\/em>, but there\u2019s something else too, when we listen with our eyes. I\u2019m just not real good at it still.<\/p>\n