Suntan Lines

A flashfiction collage made from lyrics by Danielle Ate the Sandwich

Suntan Lines

Spring is springing.  You’re daft as a debutant and I’m hoping that something will rub off.  All I needed was single and sovereign and sweet but I could use a man like you.  I can’t help but wonder which song you’re humming when you lick your lips.  I know to cuddle close to your lover, because there are people who will steal them while you’re in the bathroom.  When you’re gone I worry that they’ve found you.

***

Summer slows down to speed up my pulse.  Acting mature is overrated.  I missed days of playing on the front porch and playing baseball in the backlot.  You take cream and sugar in your coffee and you smoke and sing me songs in four four time.  We are the lucky ones.  We are hot dogs, twirling on top of blankets too hot.  You are softer than the sheets you lay upon.  Give me my sin again.  Will we roll along or fall like precipitation?

***

In the fall the kids come back to school.  I’m drunk on puddles laying thick inside the gutters lined with leaves and some unfortunate fourth grader’s math homework that blew away.  When the leaves wilt and wither and I shiver in cold weather, will you still hold my hand?  If yes, lets meet in the morning, because Halloween is not so far away.  I could be anything you wanted.  I could be any person, place, or thing you make of me.  If you wanted to be an astronaut the birds would think you’re quite a legend.  The magic word is every word so just say it.  I’ll cook a big meal with a turkey and a coconut creme pie if you come home.  I’ll use the good plates and the good cups.  Your pale skin was soft the day you left.  Someday I will see you again.

***

Winter mornings, in the parking lot of my apartment complex, steps in snow make me feel less alone.  Winter winds have been blowing cruel and cold.  I’m set on sinking but I’m yours to save.  I see you sitting in the restaurant counting complex carbohydrates.  I’m rung like dishtowels hung on laundry lines.  The parking lots are filling fuller where we sat and watched the reflected TV lights on grey house walls.  I’m still hoping for some kind of X-ray vision so I could beam into your bedroom blinds.  When obsessed with a man, what is a girl to do than dress up cardboard cutouts and pretend that they are you.  You make a fine dance partner.

Every line in this collage is from a song by Danielle Ate the Sandwich