I Would Rather Be Married To Broken

How Can We Not Create A Fantasy In Our Minds When The Reality Is So Hard?

I Am Old Enough To Know Only Too Well My Good And Bad Qualities, Which Were Often One In The Same.

And Often It Would Be A Woman Who Was In Her 70s Or 80s Who Would Win The Beauty Contest, Because Bound Feet Never Age.

Perhaps He Was Afraid As I Was That We'd Be Caught. Or Perhaps He Was Breathing Me In Just As I Was Letting Him Come Into My Lungs, My Eyes, My Heart.

Mama Used To Tell Us A Story About A Cicada Sitting High In A Tree. It Chirps And Drinks In Dew, Oblivious To The Praying Mantis Behind It. The Mantis Arches Up Its Front Leg To Stab The Cicada, But It Doesn't Know An Oriole Perches Behind It. The Bird Stretches Out Its Neck To Snap Up The Mantis For A Midday Meal, But Its Unaware Of The Boy Who's Come Into The Garden With A Net. Three Creatures—the Cicada, The Mantis And The Oriole—all Coveted Gains Without Being Aware Of The Greater And Inescapable Danger That Was Coming.