While medieval goats were licking salted human
flesh to bone, the rock doves were millennia into
A) domestication
B) delivering messages
C) serving human’s hands and eyes
D) all of the above
But, truth be told, I don’t know what rock
doves were or are waiting for. I can only guess.
In the ER waiting room, squirrels were jet-skiing
across the TV screen on the local news.
While my guts knotted holes, I held crocheting
hooks in my fidgeting hands, Father was receiving
A) stitches
B) a cast
C) crutches
D) all of the above
One time after a visit to the ER, he asked me to remove the stitches
for him. Thick as fishing wire, blackened by gummy coagulated blood.
Saves me money on a co-pay, he reasoned, only half-
joking. Pull those stitches out.
The sound of the freeway was grumbling in the distance as
I looked at the mangled wrists and someday scars. I
A) tried to speak but found my mouth was as dry as taxidermy
B) choked on my own charcoal tongue
C) acquiesced
D) all of the above
The gaze of the garage lights made my eyes sting with sweat.
When I gripped it between my small fingers, the wire
A) remained snugly rooted despite my pulling
B) began to drag as I yanked with more force
C) finally, excruciatingly, slid thickly out
D) all of the above
Eventually, humans grow tire of their play things. Pigeons can be found in any major city fending for themselves, hobbling along with bumblefoot and only cold French fries on the ground to eat.
If you chose mostly A’s, you’re a Samantha. If you chose mostly B’s, you’re fighting the river water at your front door with useless fists. If you chose mostly C’s you’d be the closeted truth I know best, one that licks wounds and adds salt. If you chose mostly D’s you’re a Carrie.