OR, USUALLY ONLY BEFORE THE LAST
Michael Kimball
She isn’t sitting down on the couch or getting up out of bed or taking a shower or fixing breakfast or making lunch or eating dinner or eating out or going out or away or staying home or coming back home or answering the telephone or listening to the answering machine or calling anybody back or sitting in the backyard or breaking a glass or taking her glasses off or the trash out or rinsing her toothbrush out or putting her lipstick on or washing her face or hands or rubbing lotion into her skin or closing her eyes or slamming doors or standing in the doorway or reading a book or looking out the window or at me and at old photographs or listening to old records or turning the radio on and dancing slow dances by herself or looking at herself in the mirror or brushing her teeth or combing her hair or touching her make-up up or tucking strands of hair behind her ear or picking an outfit out or matching her bra and panties or pulling her shirt on over her head or tucking her blouse down into her waistband or bending down to tie her shoelaces up or changing her clothes or rearranging the furniture or preheating the oven or turning the stove on or microwaving anything frozen or waving goodbye or buying a book or newspaper or magazine or pumping gasoline or driving a car away down the highway or riding her bike up the driveway or running through the yard or walking through a room or looking through the cupboards or locking the windows and doors or sweeping and mopping the floors or mowing the lawn or doing the laundry or folding the clothes or closing the blinds or shading her eyes or turning the lights off or lighting matches or planting flowers or watering plants or drinking water or mixing drinks or fixing her hair-do up or doing the dishes or stripping the bed down or unbuttoning her shirt or blouse or unzipping her pants or skirt or rolling her nylons down her legs or turning the air on or the heat down or falling down and breaking her arm and hip or getting up or waking up or standing up or sitting down in any arm chair or lying down on a lounge chair or climbing stairs or walking up the sidewalk or setting out place settings or sitting down at the table or saying my name or touching my arm or hair or face or leg or forgetting my name or face or looking away or taking her pills or getting her prescription filled or going for treatment or to the doctor or lying down or getting rest or falling asleep or trying to sit up and eat or drink or talk or breathe.