5 by ann ward
Rosalind Cartwright
I’m with David Lynch but he is acting like David
Cronenberg, which is a great relief. He tells me that I will have three children, and I am so grateful I kiss him all over his face. David and I pick strawberries on a steep hill. I pick a lock because David locked himself in the bathroom, and I need the blow dryer. I’m teaching David how to do standup comedy but now he just wants to pick up women. We plan a boat trip across the ocean because David said he’s done it before. He’s making me pack his correspondence but the box doesn't fit into the boat. We wait for the metro. I notice there's a dog sleeping at the mouth of the tunnel, but the train doesn't hit it. David doesn't see it. The ground of the tunnel is tile and the train can just drive on it with wheels. David sees the dog too after a bit. It’s brown and white. |
Tell Your Flip Flops I Am Free of Fungi
Shower and be naked with other naked women
but try a little to hide the opening bits maybe don't bend over a lot for example dry your legs enough so that you can pull your pants on without too much tugging. What language are those two women speaking it's not French oh it's just really quiet English. Put the wet towel in the bag what will you buy for dinner. You're hungry craving crisp batter flakes but you buy a barbecued chicken to satisfy the women, to satisfy everyone's need for something already worthy of a mouth. |
Heart Weight
I put a thin gold chain in my mouth and then two more necklaces. I build a shelf on my molars to hold my heels and I stuff some cash in the toes in case. I put marbles in my mouth in a mason jar to seem fun, but I've never played with them, like round stones but green, all of them. I buy a couch for my mouth it is three thousand dollars. There is no room for a cat I give my cat away. I think I could fit a small dog as long as it doesn't shit inside, it has to be trained first. Royal blue looks so great with gold, it makes me want teacups that match the dresses. I open wide and bid on some handbags on eBay. I put a maximum bid of a thousand so I don't get anxious. I hate being outbid. I put some Stella McCartney in my mouth, I put some DVF in my mouth, I put some Rodarte in my mouth, I put your heart in my mouth and a gold watch and there is time now. There is room for more. |
Listen for the Click of the Door
Maybe lie down on the floor with the intention to
sit up and then get up the intention was enough. The sound of the cat licking herself like a drunk guy giving head it's too much. How far can you get on what you have. Did Methuselah drink 8 glasses of water a day for all that time? |
Also Bits of Rich Pastry, Also Figs
I was a king, gold crepe paper trailing from an onion
hat, I hunted tiny ballpoint pens and persecuted them for their redness, turned them blue. My belly was thick with brass knots, my teeth choked with rubies, my mouth lifted my heavy beard and boomed I WILL WIPE OUT THE MUTINIES, and the people were afraid. I felt satiated, red ink into wine, pupils saturated blackblue, I collapsed onto the lap of the man I'd never had and let him squeeze my breasts with his forearms while my people watched, and watched, and looked away. |
ANN WARD is the Program Director for the Summer Literary Seminars in Lithuania and Kenya. Her writing has appeared most recently in Washington Square Review, Stroboscope, Dragnet, and Contemporary Verse 2, and is forthcoming in an anthology from Vehicule Press. She is an MFA candidate in fiction at UMass Amherst.
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