Rich Women in Seaside Towns Wearing Pashminas Their Husbands Bought for Them

They collect themselves

On the rocks

Wind blowing their hair

In such a way

That it only serves to make them look

More beautiful

But non-threatening

And peri-menopausal

And all at the same time

They check into hotels

That are quaint

And quirky

And run by a burly man named Steve

And his mother Dot

Steve will flirt with them

And Dot will offer to fatten them up

And they’ll delight in these whimsical

Seaside people

And their whimsical seaside attitudes

Back home

Their husbands are sleeping with secretaries

And nanny’s

And waitresses from restaurants

Where couples go to celebrate their anniversaries

With salmon and couscous

Then their husbands
And the women sleeping with their husbands head
To some lovely hotel

To make love for five minutes

Then read articles from the Atlantic
On their phones

Before bed

Here in seaside towns
The rich women wearing pashminas

Think about opening up

A shop of some kind

A shop that sells jam, maybe

Or scarves

Or scarves and jam

It's titillating
The opportunity
The chance

The chance to start over

To begin again

To start living

Really living

It's almost too good to pass up

But the WiFi sucks

And the nearest mall

Is over two hours away

So the dream of small town life

Is left to reside

In the smallest fantasies

They can think up

They lay the pashminas

Their husbands bought for them

On the bed in their hotel room

While they have a soak
In the courtyard pool

And drink cocktails made
By Dot's daughter Dawn

They sit by the pool

Soaking

Drinking

Soaking

Crying a little

But not too much

Because, after all, they’re still rich

They still have at least five credit cards

And a suitcase full of DK attire

That they can wear on the beach

They still have access to moisturizer

And cold cream

And hair brushes

Made of imitation ivory

They still look good

For their age

--Whatever age that is

They stopped keeping track

After forty

And they know a few good divorce attorneys

More than a few

It seems like everyone they know

Is a divorce attorney

After you turn forty

Divorce attorneys

Begin befriending you

At a rapid rate

Assuming that soon

Your time will be up

And the assumption

Is frequently astute

They think about contacting

Their husbands

To let them know

That they’re all right

And not dead
And so they're very lucky

Some husbands aren’t just sociopaths

But violent sociopaths

When you make the decision

To marry a rich man

There are only so many ways

Things can end

And sometimes

They end very, very badly

The rich women wearing pashminas
Begin to list the things

Their husbands

Have bought for them

Over the years

And as they list

They close their eyes

And imagine

The water in the pool

Is the sea

And there are waves

And boats

And fish

And fisherman

And it all goes on forever

And it never leads to shore

Austin at Night

Austin only smokes

At night

During the day

His tie’s too tight

And he can’t catch a sweat
To save his own ass
So--at night
That's when he does it

The passenger door

On his car won’t close

And his breakfast is two cups of coffee

And ten minutes of guitar practice
That's it, Kit

The girl he lives with

Who isn’t his girlfriend

Tells him the rent is overdue

And so is her period

He wants to ask if it’s his

But it has to be

Because the girl he lives with

Hasn’t left the house in two months

She thinks somebody's waiting outside

To kidnap her

He doesn’t ask questions

He doesn’t know what questions he would ask

Even if he wanted to ask any

His vision is getting worse

And his hands hurt all the time

Austin thinks he might be dying

But he’d have to ask questions

To find out

So instead

He just picks up extra shifts

At the bar

And tries to numb the pain

With conversation

And girls named Monica

When he drives home at night

He plays songs by artists

He used to hate

When he was younger

He’s got acne now

And he never had that before

He’s got a better attitude though

And a better work ethic

And a better job

Because when he was younger

He never had a job
So compared to nothing
This one's an improvement

Unpacking cigarettes
At the warehouse
Out by Tula

Back when he was younger
He didn't mess around much

Just a night here and there
With the first Monica

The older one

The one who used to buy him shit

Provided he came by her place at night

Austin’s better at night

She’d say

That's when he gives me
The best kind of attention

She died two days after he turned twenty-one

From an overdose

When her kids came to bury her

They asked Austin

If he was the boy she talked about

The one who came by

To clean her house

Once a week

Austin said yeah, that was him

And he agreed to be a pallbearer

Because the woman only had one son

And he had a bad knee

Her youngest daughter

Took a liking to Austin

And let him stay in the house

Provided he really did clean it

And fix up all the things

Her mother had let

Go to shit

The last few years of her life

Austin didn’t want to hook up

With the daughter

For obvious reasons

But it happened anyway

And once it did

There didn’t seem to be any sense

And trying to stop it from happening again

She was a pretty girl

Not beautiful, but pretty

And she made him toast every morning

And beat the shit out of him one night

When he came home

High off his ass

From some shit

His buddy Chris gave him
After they were done for the night
At the warehouse

When she told him she’d kick his ass out

If he ever came home like that again

He promised he wouldn’t

And the promise lasted all of six days

Before he met up with Chris again

And then he didn’t even bother

Going back to the daughter

Or the house

He just drove to meet up with his cousin

Over the state line

And that’s when he found out

His cousin had enlisted

And his wife was scared to go outside

Because she thought

Somebody was going to grab her

And that’s where he is now

At night, he tells himself stories

About next year

And how great it’s going to be

This year’s gone for him

Even two months in

He can tell

It’s a wash

Dead on arrival

So instead, he thinks about next year

Not next week

Or next month

Sure as hell

Not tonight

At night, Austin thinks of something

So far away

He knows he’ll never get there

And even that

Doesn’t seem

Like far enough

The Hypnotist's First Date

The hypnotist orders the salmon

And so does her date

She tells him he’d probably prefer the duck

But he swears he wants the salmon

Even though a minute ago

He was saying he didn’t like fish

This happens

It happens all the time

She tells him she hates her boss

And he offers to kill him

‘It’s a her,’ the hypnotist says

‘Her,’ he says, ‘I’ll kill her’

She tells him to go to sleep

And he goes to sleep

Right there at the table

Right in his Caesar salad

The poor schmuck

When he wakes up

She asks him

If he’d like to go for a walk

After dinner

To help him wake up

He says he loves walks

He’s dying to walk

He could walk forever

She says maybe they should stay put

And now all of a sudden
He wouldn’t dream of moving

From his chair

Wouldn’t hear of it

What a stupid idea that was

My idea, he says, My idea to go for a walk

What a dumb notion that was
Gosh, I'm a moron

This is her first date

This is every first date

This is about what she expects

She’s still very new

To hypnotism
And so her sense of control

Is…

...Not great

She’ll suggest something

--A movie

And the guy can’t wait to see it

Even if he’s seen it

A hundred times
He wants to go again
With her
Because she suggested it

She’ll ask if he likes rock climbing

And all they can think about

Is scaling the nearest cliff

She could tell them to jump off the cliff

And they’d probably be happy to

They’d probably jump

With a smile on their face

And a song in their heart

Do you like jazz?

I love jazz

Do you like jazz?

I’m obsessed with jazz

Do you like jazz?

I invented jazz

Sometimes she has a little fun with them

She has to have a little fun

Or she’ll go mad

She keeps working at controlling her abilities

But no matter what

She always seems to overpower

Even the strongest of personalities

When she told one prospective boyfriend

That she was a hypnotist

He told her that he was, quote—

‘Immune to parlor tricks’

She paid her portion of the check and left

But not before making him think

He was a talking sofa cushion

Her last first date was with a lovely woman

Who took her to a lovely place on the water

They ate lobster

And toasted with club soda

Because it turned out
Neither of them felt like drinking

This woman seemed like fun

And so the hypnotist was worried

About what would happen

Once her abilities kicked in

Little did she know

That the woman sitting across from her

Was also a skilled suggestion expert

And soon their conversation

Went something like this—

I love strawberry desserts

I love strawberry desserts too

I love strawberry desserts too

Me too

Me too

You’re beautiful

So are you

And nobody could really tell

Who was affecting to

Although, between you and me,

A lot of good relationships are like that

One person likes the other so much

That a little part of them changes

Into the person

Sitting across from them

Provided both feel the same way

A little goes one way

And a little goes another way

And it isn’t the most individualistic way of living

But it’s not half bad either

Love isn’t perfect

And neither is falling in love

So this was as good a first date

As any this hypnotist
Or any other hypnotist

Could hope to have

But, of course, if you can think

Of a better way to eat lobster

And toast club soda
On the water
While someone tells you
You're beautiful

We’d love to hear

Your suggestion

Full Tubes of Toothpaste

I’m going to tell you

I’ve never been in any kind of

Set-up

That was that nice

This was—

I mean, this was nice

You’d use a roll of toilet paper

Walk out of the bathroom

Go back in a minute later

And there’s a brand new roll

They never even let it get down

To half a roll

They’d make sure it’d always have that

Nice full plump look to it
That cheap toilet paper
Never really has

Same with the toothpaste

Always had full tubes of toothpaste

And a clean brush

Every time

Like, right out of the package clean

Nice

So nice

The girls took right to it

Didn’t want to leave

Me, I had to sort of brace myself

Because I knew
They weren’t going to let us stay there

Forever

It wasn’t designed for that

It was all temporary

That’s how come they could be so nice

Because they knew

You weren’t going to be getting used

To anything

It's easy to be nice to someone
When you know
You won't have to do it
For very long

When we got to the first station

They asked us

If we were refugees

And we said ‘No’

Then I had to explain to the girls
What a refugee was

Because they’re too young to know

A—a—term like that

I told ‘em that some people

Go to different planets

Because they’re being persecuted

And they knew what that word was

Because I had told them before

I said some people go to Mars

To get away from trouble

And some just go

Because they got too much
Going on in their lives

To stay on Earth

Then they asked me

What we had going on

And I didn’t know how to answer that

So I just told them

We gotta get moving

Because the first station is pretty busy

And they don’t like people

Standing around

We got lucky

Because the voucher they gave us

For temporary housing

Was what got us to the hotel

With the automated—everything

The toilet paper

And the toothpaste

And really nice pillows

And sheets

And everything smelling so good

We thought we were in heaven

We really did

Especially ‘cause of

Where we come from

My girls had never seen

Anything like that

And this was on top of

Riding on the shuttle

And seeing the rockets

And hearing all the science words

And the codes for everything

One of the girls told me

They wanted to talk to their mom

Before we took off

But I told them

We’d talk to their mom

When we got to Mars

I couldn’t tell them the truth

That their mom is a heathen
That she's godless

That she thinks women should be like men

And all that other bullshit

And that’s why I had to take the girls

And get them as far away as I could

I talked to my friend who works with the launchers

And he hooked me up with the passes you need

Bumped me up the line

Otherwise the girls would have been teenagers

By the time I could take them off-planet

And by then

They’d probably already be on their third abortion

And second divorce

You understand what I’m trying to say?

This was a real salvation for them

It was a real, uh—

I mean, I was liberating them

And once they’re off-planet

Their mom’s never going to be able to find them

She might have some ideas about where they are

But communication is still so bad

That even an e-mail getting out

Costs a fortune

And half the time it doesn’t even work

You just get a bunch of ‘x’s and ‘z’s

And a word here or there

And thank goodness for that

I’m telling you

No matter what happens

This whole thing has been a godsend

It really has

Scrubbing Floors in Empty Houses

If she’s gotta get up

She’s gotta get up

And go scrub floors

In empty houses

Long lost linoleum

And hardwood

That hurts your knees

And snaps your back

She’s scared to play music

In case an owner shows up

But the owners never show up

Because it’s in that part of Scovy

Where it’s just houses

And no people

No owners
No residents

Just floors
And walls
And windows

They built all these pretty houses

For pretty people to live in

Thinking Scovy was going to become

The next Hyatt Platte

Or Fentonburg

But it didn’t work

And now there’s just houses

That nobody from town
Can afford to live in

But the realtors want them cleaned

In case anybody changes their mind
Or wins the lottery

So she gets up early

She drives to the block

Right near the airport

Thinking—

Even if they could find rich people

To live in Scoville

Who the hell would want to live

Near the airport

If they had enough money

To live somewhere else?

She's surprised at how much
Dirt and dust piles up

Without anybody
To track it in

The mirrors still get smudged

The windows still end up with marks on them

She would blame a ghost

But a house can’t be haunted

If nobody’s ever lived in it

Even still

She won’t go down
In the basements

Or up into attics

She leaves all the closet doors open

And keeps her mace nearby

Just because there’s nothing in the house to steal

Doesn’t mean there won’t be burglars or squatters

Trying to stay warm in the winter months

While she scrubs the floors

She thinks about how her mother

Wanted to live in a house just like this

They’d get in the car on a Sunday

And drive through better neighborhoods

Than the one they lived in

Talking about the kind of people

Who lived behind the iron gates

And the tall, tall fences

Her mother would let her pick out a room

By pointing at a window

Then they’d drive back home

And sit in front of the television

Trying not to get upset

About having to live in a one-bedroom

Where the lights went out every other day

And the hot water ran out

After two minutes

Her mother died when she was seventeen

--Car accident over by the bridge

She’d been on her own ever since

The sky gets dark

By the time she’s done

With the last house

She finishes up quick

Because being around the empty houses

After dark

Makes her nervous

Like she’s in some sort of zombie movie

Without the zombies

She stops at the Italian restaurant

The franchise place

Because her friend Cindy works there

On Sunday’s and Monday’s

And she’ll usually give her a discount

On anything that isn’t a special

When she walks in

The hostess tells her Cindy called out sick

Something about her leg hurting

But she remembers the two of them being friendly

And says they made too much rigatoni that day

So does she want a plate to take home?

She wants to say ‘No, thank you’

But she’s starving

So she takes the food in a to-go box

And then eats the whole meal in her car

She parks near the airport
And watches the planes come down

No rush to get home

The only thing waiting for her there

Is a dirty floor

She doesn’t have the strength

To get down

And clean

A Junkie

I mean, I’m not going to win

Any awards for this

Not this year

This year, that girl

Who played the nurse

In the wheelchair

Is going to win

And I saw the movie

And she’s great

So I’m fine with it

I’m fine with it

To be upfront with you
To be honest
To get really real with you about it?

I was just really excited

To play a junkie

I mean, I’ve never played one before

And, you know, it’s a rite of passage

For an actress

I think

To

You know

Do that

So I was pretty--

Yeah, I was pretty excited

And I studied a little bit

I watched some movies

I went to this clinic

And kind of hung out

Until somebody asked me to leave

And that was fine

I had a feeling

That would happen
So it was fine

The junkies there

Were really nice

And I got some good stuff to, uh

You know

Work with

Things I could bring to the table

I felt like--

I don’t know if I should be saying this

But this is, you know

I want to be truthful

About this, so--

Regarding how this process went

So I’ll just say it

I didn’t think we took the performance

Far enough

In terms of like--

You don’t have a single scene

Where I’m slapping my son
Where I'm stealing anything to pay for my drugs

Where I’m getting violent with anybody
Like, not at all
No violence
Which I thought--

I was just disappointed about that

The physicality wasn't--

I was ready to go there
To really explore it
And the director just didn't--

You know, they wouldn't let me wear fake teeth
Like, really bad teeth
Or let my hair go all scraggly

I barely scratch myself

And I tried--

I really tried to insert all that--

That whole itchiness thing

That junkies have

In all the movies

And the director told me to stop

And I, okay so--

I respect this director

But I didn’t respect

That particular

Decision

I also didn’t like

That I wasn’t allowed to show the character

Prostituting herself, you know?

Because I thought that was real

I thought that was sort of--

The reality of what

The situation would be

And I think--

You know, it’s a crapshoot

Awards and whatever

But I think if we had showed that

And showed me getting violent
And showed me really deteriorating

You would have seen my performance

Getting a lot more, uh, accolades or whatever

And that would have been better for the movie overall

So I’m a little, you know, not bitter, but something about it

I’m something about it

There were no ratty wardrobe choices

There were no shots of me actually, you know

Shooting up

Doing the drugs

I mean, they left that all off-screen
And they implied it
Don't get me wrong
They obviously implied it

But film is so visual

It’s a visual medium

So to not show something is like--

It’s like it’s not even there, you know?

I mean, there might have been people

Who didn’t even realize

That I was playing a junkie

And those people would be dumb
But movies are for everybody, right? Even dumb people

Maybe they thought my character
Was just out of her mind or something

And that would be okay

Because, you know, playing someone

Mentally ill

Can get you attention as well

But when you’re not specific

About what you’re doing

I just think you’re hurting

The thing--the film--itself

You know?

But it was great

It was a great project

And I’m glad I did it

I just think

If we’re talking about

What I brought to it

What I contributed--

To the conversation

About junkies

About, you know

Being a junkie

I think--

I just don’t think

I added anything to that

To that overall

Uh

Conversation

I just think

It was pretty much

What you’d expect

And that’s--

I mean, that’s not going to get you

Anywhere