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The Dismantling of Parts
- Prairie Schooner
- University of Nebraska Press
- Volume 78, Number 1, Spring 2004
- pp. 84-85
- 10.1353/psg.2004.0017
- Article
- Additional Information
- Purchase/rental options available:
Prairie Schooner 78.1 (2004) 84-85
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The Dismantling of Parts
Lisa D. Chavez
What I took when I left: a socket
set and a map of his days - familiar
routes I traveled in my mind. I'd picture himleaning over his kitchen table - scarred
formica veiled in newsprint. Smoke
from a cigarette wreathing his face,he'd squint into the carburetor
he'd just torn-apart. A spray can
of solvent and an open PabstBlue Ribbon warming by his chair.
Six o'clock. He'd get up. Sigh.
Grab an edge of newspaper, slidethe carb aside. Rub the back
of his neck, leaving smudged prints
in the place I used to tease with teethand tongue. Gut a chile, seeds
detached from flesh with a flick
of the knife. Jalapeno and a splashof soy, swirled in a cup. He'd key
open a can of smoked oysters. Tweeze
them out with chopsticks, dip them [End Page 84]in the sauce. Maybe as he ate,
he'd stare at the poem I wrote, still
tacked to the wall. Words to caresswhat hands no longer touch.
My photo there too, windblown
hair curtaining my face, the way timeand distance obscures his now.
Years have passed, old lives traded in
on new. Only memory remains:the slippage and glide of his skin
on mine, his body an old addiction
I succumb to in dreams. Yet I seehis hands still: fingers oil-stained
and blunt, nimble with calipers
and springs. Intelligent fingers, intimatewith the intricate ways of machinery,
the dismantling of parts. Hands
that broke me down too, slid meinto pieces, nipple and cunt. I rose
breathless beneath him, dispersing
like ether sprayed on oiled metal,an element of air.
Lisa D. Chavez is a poet and nonfiction writer. Her latest books are Destruction Bay (West End P) and In An Angry Season (U of Arizona P). Raised in Alaska, her first publication in Prairie Schooner was in our special issue: Writing from Alaska. She now lives in New Mexico.
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