Creative

dirty pillows

By Heather Perry
your gaze hits the side of my face —

and i can feel it,
boring a hole of desire through my left cheek —
my better side.

and you circle around me,
along some imaginary,
transparent boundary —
those slim hips of yours
swingin' in a cocky swagger —
and i keep walking straight ahead.

you make some gesture —
hey, look at me lookin' at you —
but i pretend not to see it —
check my watch,
look around for the friend
i'm not supposed to
meet until tomorrow —
and keep walking straight.

so you say something —
something as simple as
"hello" — and i mumble something back —
maybe it was a reply, but
probably not —
and still, i keep walking.

and then i turn up this path,
so close to my apartment that
i can almost hear the
hum of my fish tank, and
i start thinking about how i
really should call home
because it has been a couple of weeks,
and i know how my mom worries —
and, to be honest,
i forget that you are still walking along
behind me —
until i feel you almost beside me
      breathing heavy —
and suddenly, i wonder if you have
asthma too — and if it's the same as mine
where exercise makes it worse —
and if i had been walking
too fast for you —
with your asthma and all —
and without thinking about it,
      i turn and look at you —

you smile —

and i'm still walking —
just because i really do need to
get home and
feed my fish — and, besides,
i don't think we have the same kind of asthma —

and then, you whisper something —
      something i can't really make out
because you're still breathing
kind of heavy, and
i'm half daydreaming
about the soda i'm goin' to pour
as soon as i get inside —

so, you lean closer to me —
so close that i can feel your breath,
      hot and musky,
brush across my cheek and earlobe —
            and whisper again —
         i sure like your dirty pillows.

Heather Perry works as a promotional writer for CVS.com by day.
She devotes her evenings and weekends to remodeling the house she shares with a friend and also to keeping the Seattle Writergrrls Steering Committee on task in her role as the SC facilitator. Check out her handiwork in our Resources area.

Seattle Writergrrls
Seattle, Washington USA
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