A tipsy walk, the walk we took
Rent from DeepDyve- A tipsy walk, the walk we took
A tipsy walk, the walk we took
nathaniel mackey, "Double Staccato"
When auntie-mommy walks out of the bathroom, she uses one hand andarm to hold her breasts, and the free hand to cover her poonani. She runsacross the room snickering and giggling at herself, her hips shufflingfrom side to side.
When you come out naked, you stand with your hands on your hips. Youtilt your head to the side and make eye contact with whoever is there.And if no one is there, then you look at yourself in the mirror. Your wholebody forming the word "there."
All of our stomachs protrude into fatty paunches before forming thepillow of our poonanis crowded between our thighs.
I've inherited both you and auntie's relative hairlessness. Auntie-mommyonce joked in front of her third husband that it was our "French" blood;he's dead now.
When I walk out naked, I swing my arms at my side and look into anyvanishing point.
Mother, you and I have had different youths. Mine is much morecautious, I am a trapeze artist with a taut net. I've never met the menyou've known, or had the kind of sex you've had, although we may havedone the same drugs: you in a boyfriend's car driving down 95 in the 70s,and me on a mountain in Brazil on a university budget. [End Page 86]
Both you and auntie's eyes scour my body when I leave the shower; youboth say it is to make sure, but neither of you tell me of what.
We take a tipsy walk, the walk we take, toward the ocean on Higgs Beachso we can return to what we came from. The only lights on the island arethe lights of passing cars, the drivers of which I am sure are surprised tosee three naked Black women scuttling naked toward the sea across thestreet like crabs. [End Page 87]
Jessica Lanay is a poet and short fiction and art writer. Her work focuses on architectures of interiority, escapism, history of psychoanalysis, and Southern culture. Her poetry has appeared in Sugar House Review, Crab Fat Literary Magazine, Acentos Review, Fugue, and others. She has work forthcoming in the Common and Indiana Review. Her short fiction was most recently published in Tahoma Literary Review and TAYO. A short autobiographical essay was also published in Salt Hill Journal. She is a Callaloo, Cave Canem, and Kimbilio fellow.
