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| Menopause, The Dream by Coleman Hough August/September 2003 I had a dream about my genitals sliding out like a piece of chewing gum Plop into a toilet’s swampy waters Imagine my surprise as I stood there Naked since my underwear had been complex Necessary to remove and my dress The organdy layers fanning up at me Laughing from a hook at my face looking Down at the pink fallen flesh floating there Weighty and then the automatic flush. Saving myself the way one would do I reached down and caught it held it in my hand Washed it off in the sink patted it dry I thought it would be easy to fit back in That it would click into place settle Like my diaphragm behind a bone But what I couldn’t tell was which was the front Which was the back and where did it really go? Details I would certainly soon remember So I wrapped it up in toilet paper Put it in my purse and dressed without it Returning to the party flushed unsexed Invisible clutching my purse in a crowd I wandered around drinking cheap champagne Trying to find a doctor I could ask If this was something I should have expected I wanted a scientific answer No one had warned me not even my mother The queen of menopause goddess of the change - Someday your genitals will just drop down You could be anywhere so be prepared I carry an airtight container with me Just in case and darling you should as well It happens anytime after forty one - She could have offered practical advice I would have accepted it with grace and poise Hot flashes thinning hair fallen genitals - Your most creative time - is all she had said menopause and the mystery was for me To discover like sex something beautiful The way she had described it when I was eight Sex that was now in my purse with lipstick And car keys credit card receipts money Items I may have lost or forgotten Stolen borrowed reclaimed Coleman Hough lives in Brooklyn. She wrote the screenplay for Steven Soderbergh’s Full Frontal. "Menopause, The Dream" is an excerpt from her monologue, Vanishing Point. |
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The Rail invites you to a reading with Jason Flores-Williams and Brian Carreira, along with musical guest Steve Strunsky of the Lonesome Prairie Dogs. Thurs., Sept. 22, 8:30 p.m. Vox Pop--Flatbush, Brooklyn www.voxpop.net |
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OFF THE RAIL FALL 2005 at the Central Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library - Grand Army Plaza |
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The Independent Press Association-NY recently honored The Brooklyn Rail with the following awards: |