Down on my knees again, on the linoleum outside room six, I polish it with the remnant of Grandpa’s union suit, and once again dead Grandma Fry looks down on me from Paradise and tell me from the balcony of wrath I am girlhood’s one bad line of credit.
Every older girl I know is learining hot to in a car, while here I am, eye at the keyhole, watching Raoul, who heats my dreams with his red hair, lights up my life with his polished brogues, groans Jesus, Jesus. I am little and stare into the dark until the whole small
town of lust emerges. I stare with envy, I stare and stare. Now they are having cocktails. The drinks are dim lagoons beneath their paper parasols. The air is stung with orange, with lemon, a dash of Clorox, a dash of bitters; black square, white square goes the linoleum.