"Dive In"

 

The drink she poured herself got taller with each night she spent stuck in the long, echoing, after-dinner darkness, until finally she just dived in, and her hair got tangled, and her skin got cold, and she realized despite its depth that the pool she had dug herself to swim in was very small after all.

[Written after reading this amazing poem by James Wright: "In Response to a Rumor That the Oldest Whorehouse in Wheeling, West Virginia Has Been Condemned"]

"Growing Pains"

"I swear, all I did was try to stretch my neck muscles!" the woman said as she accepted the bottle of painkillers with one hand, the heating pad with the other.

Her husband shook his head. "See, that's where you went wrong," he informed her. "You tried to stretch all willy-nilly, like a thirty-three year old. You're thirty-four now, wild child! Time to start acting your age."

The woman popped one of the pills, wishing the ibuprofen could make all of the pain go away.