7.02.2006

American

I.

She is decided to suicide. The slow ride in the car from the wake was enough to tell her that she shouldn’t have to see anymore. She has small cuts on her feet and she is a small girl and she has lost most of her color and now she looks white.

The water breaks and the baby is born and the baby has dark hair and dark eyes and the doctor is from India or Pakistan or Afghanistan. Why is my baby dark, Mrs. Hanley asks. You fucking Arab, Mr. King says.

II.

The dance is for teenagers and the teenagers are white and the teenagers dance like they are having sex. The DJ plays rap music and Mrs. Hanley touches Mr. King.

Mike is on the junior varsity tennis team and Mike has sex with Sally in a parked Ford Escort and Sally gets pregnant and Sally is dark. You fucking whore, Mike says.

III.

There are little animals with horns and the animals are in the street. There are white people being murdered and there are white people sticking needles into small babies and there are white people urinating and defecating in the churches and it is raining.

We don’t want anymore of that fucking music in our town, Principle Harris says.

IV.

Why do you live in the basement, Hollis asks Michelle. The basement is flooded and there are animals with yellow eyes in the basement and the animals make squeaking sounds and Hollis is scared. My sister is home soon and then it won’t be as scary, Michelle says.

V.

I had sex when I was fifteen and the baby was born dark, Mrs. Stevens says and she makes little crying noises in the pantry because she can’t sleep. You have bruises on your ribs, Dr. Jacobs says.

Sally has no clothes on and she is in the park and soon her stomach will become round and she starts to cry and it is dark and the white people with needles are banging trash can lids and they are close.

VI.

There is a baby in the street and the baby is dark. Why is the baby in the street, Hollis asks Michelle.

She suicides and later he learns how to Waltz and the chaperones at the dance wear perfume and drink seltzer.

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