The Knicknackery Issue Three - Monsters - 2015 | Page 12

Aspects of The Dream Are Aspects of The Dreamer: 2

Jill Khoury

There’s silverware in the trees. Pots and pans weigh down

the low branches of the post oaks. She’s hung whisks,

metal teardrops. Deflated shapes knock together.

Manic kudzu—my feet snag. Here’s the entrance

to her trailer inside a mouth of vines. I hear that metal

rattle again and look up; she’s rigged a sort of awning.

Knives pointed downward: cleaver parer debone-

ing. Bent screendoor almost comes off in my hand

when I push the latch. Inside is dim and my feet slog

over the mauve carpet she hates. It’s swampy in here

with no a/c and the blinds drawn. On the tv an adman

shills rare coins. My mother’s perched on the couch dying

properly, wrapped like a molebeast in a baby blue

blanket. One claw protrudes.

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