A Creation Myth Suddenly Gone Awry

Zoom in: an incestuous embrace on the grave-plate. Our lovers have been waiting a long time. You have to leave out a lot to catch the most important things. For instance: here is the real Maria Matuscak. She stops at the corner mart every afternoon for a bottled latte while uncut grass fondles the plump blue vein at the top of her foot. Someday she will kill someone; no one knows she has it in her. The hands that cup her breasts are her own, her fingers are too wrinkled for her youth. The smell of sex clings to her hair, she washes it with everything from tomato juice to orange blossom, until finally she cuts it all off. She knows what it is like to keep a secret until you vomit. How perfectly her toenails fit into the engraved letters on her grandfather’s nameplate! Be wary of her, she may use strangeness to lure you away from sentimentality. Surface tension—that’s what keeps rainwater from spilling over the edge of a too-full vase. That’s what keeps Maria from breaking down the walls.