She'd seen them, tens of thousands of them, on conveyor belts like extras for a crowd scene in some biblical movie,
Or jammed into crates,
Like juicy red gunslingers locked up in the town jail.
Still,
She thought,
You bite into one, hear the crunch, and let the juice run down your chin.
You slice them and bake them, with cinnamon and love.
You pitch one to your brother and watch him grin as he swings hard--
When apple meets bat,
It's a mess
And it's funny.
"Strength lies in emotional control," he said, but she knew it was bullshit.
Standing behind him, she squirted Barbasol onto his head, and giggled. He looked ridiculous,
Like a macho ice cream cone.
"What?" he demanded.
"Nothin' babe," she replied and started shaving his dome.
Still,
She thought,
You tuck it behind your ear, girly-wise, and they're half yours already.
You let it hang down, you toss it, you let it go messy, and voila,
A slave at your feet.
You curl the ends around your fingers and you,
Well, you...
"Ow," he says.
"Sorry babe."
Eve and Delilah
Meet at the movies, the noon bargain matinee.
They are watching "The Time Traveler's Wife",
And they are sicker than fuck of being blamed for every little thing that goes wrong.
On the screen, there is a pile of abandoned clothes. The main character has gone poof again.
"What if we could disappear like that?" Delilah whispers in Eve's ear, her lips light and soft.
There are white blossoms on the trees lining the drive out of the mall complex.
The top on Delilah's yellow VW is down,
And the day spreads out ahead of them like
Apple guts off a bat,
A movie not yet seen,
Or the glorious, wind-blown, fucked-up 'do of angels
As they fall out of or into Paradise.
_________
Art by the fabulous Alphonse Mucha
_________
I'd always had a feeling about those two!
ReplyDeleteI hear that...sick of being blamed for everything. that whole garden of eden story is one of the main things that turned me off of religion. It wasn't until later I learned it was just an attempt to discredit the goddess.
ReplyDeleteWas this an excerpt from The Bible According to Shay? ;)
ReplyDeleteLove how you paired those two chicas together! Maybe next time they can watch "Thelma & Louise" at the drive-in and disappear afterwards in their '66 T-Bird convertible!
A macho ice cream cone - great line!
ReplyDeleteThe Gospel according the Shay. Perfection.
ReplyDeleteHappy weekend!
jj
like apples off a baseball bat...i like their choice in movies...its the guys fault for listening anyway...and we have been tying to correct that for years...smiles.
ReplyDeleteGreat take on an old story! :-)
ReplyDeletePearl
Shay you make me smile :)
ReplyDeleteWe should stop blaming everything on Eve and Delilah....Lilith did some of that shit ;-)
ReplyDeleteApples - autumn - they're stuck together like peanut butter and jelly in my head.
ReplyDeleteAnd now I'm seeing a bald man ice cream cone and apples exploding off a bat (which is fun to do and less messy than the tomatoes a friend tried once).
Eve and Delilah - now that's a scary pair! The last stanza - pure Shay :)
"As they fall out of or into paradise..."
ReplyDeletethat sums it all up my dear
those two would have raised some hell (oops)
moon *wink*
you're imagination just kills me!
ReplyDelete"And the day spreads out ahead of them like
ReplyDeleteApple guts off a bat"
That is so gorgeous and visceral.
Safety in numbers!
ReplyDeleteIs nothing sacred with you, my dear?
ReplyDeleteThen again,to be perfectly honest, even to confess, and with full knowledge that my mouth would be washed out with soap should my mother find out...this IS one of the reasons I love visiting your site:~)