the better to keep sweat from accumulating

He stands in a raft rowed by another man tugging at lines. I spread my legs wide, the better to keep sweat from accumulating in the spaces where knees and upper thighs touch. For my birthday I bought myself a bike.

Her name is Lucy, I bought her for $200 and change on consignment, already I've earned my money back all it took was one speed-pedal down that shady tree-lined hill fucking flying one time? I've pedaled out hard nearly every day since. When I sling my foot over the seat and step off my thighs are shaking, this despite running five miles at a time and doing squats in the kitchen. These days I do them with the fan pointed right at me, in my underwear and a tank top, it's the only way to make exercise bearable in this heat well that and coasting downhill

Meanwhile Wilson sleeps all day, hot on the coffee table or the stone floor in the kitchen, both are cooler than the rug or the couch or anything made of fabric though it's a relative term in this apartment these days, he's committed to the birthday suit just like every day me I'm trying to keep it relatively decent what with those filmy curtains in the kitchen




I am grateful to you, I hope you know that, there is a clause that I want to write here but I don't know who's reading, that and slurping gluten-free dairy-free ice cream from a spoon.

No I do not want to write about that, the lines are too long and they're always gone by the time I get there. Anyway.


I ride with the memory of the day that car hit me, young woman on the passenger side crashing into me thrown from the bike its frame bent around the stop sign and blood all over it. I comforted her, tugged at the metal a bit then climbed back on, it took me another few blocks to figure out where the blood was coming from, a deep puncture in my finger that's all, the scar's nearly gone now but it was when I stepped off the bike again that I started shaking