“It comes and goes.”
Waking up next to a stranger. Sandpaper tongue. Why didn’t the alarm go off? I need to get out of this city. What time is it? Jump in the shower.
Water in rivulets on skin.
Bags under eyes.
Another day another dollar.
“It comes and goes.”
“It comes and goes.”
She muttered under her breath, looking down at the steam rising from her tea.
She hates her job. And her skin. It’s too fair and bruises too easily and won’t take to the sun.
Sometimes I love her/my skin. But when I do it’s never ‘mine’. It’s ‘hers’. It’s soft and yielding. It feels like a song.
“It comes and goes.”
He laughed and kept paddling. We were in the middle of the lake in Northern Michigan. Nothing but us and the loons.
The sun was setting fire to the horizon, and the flames were reaching up like starving children.
This is what is called peace and quiet.
And it’s perfect.
“It comes and goes.”
I said to the doctor. He pressed his stethascope against my chest and his brow furrowed in concentration. Whatever he was hoping to hear, apparently wasn’t going to show its face.
“You have to go back.”
“I’d rather not.”
“I can’t force you to. But I’m telling you, in my professional opinion, you have to go back.”
“I appreciate your time. Have a nice day.’
I grabbed my coat and left.
“It comes and goes.”
She looked so small staring up from her bed, her body entirely covered except for her tiny head, poking out from the top of the blankets. He stroked her forhead and smiled at her.
“It’s okay. I’m right here. I don’t mind. You try to go to sleep. I’ll sit right here.”
“You promise?” She knows he’ll go back downstairs the moment he thinks she’s sleeping. But I, no she, doesn’t like to admit that.
“I promise.”
She smiled and turned on her side, snuggling further into the pillow.
“It comes and goes.”
“Well, which is it? Is it coming or going right now?”
“It’s gone.”
“It comes and goes.”
She pulled off the road, buried her face on the steering wheel and started crying.
But the cookies she bakes are slowly getting better.
I think so, and so does she.
