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Party Game

Author: 
Carrie Etter

We began with physical feats, the splits

for one, while another touched her nose

with her tongue - nothing extraordinary.

But now the girl who professed no such skill

 

mumbled something about love, and we edged

closer as she declared more distinctly,

"Once I cherished a man who lynched a man,

though I never did learn to forgive him."

 

Everyone had succeeded in some feat

of love and long harbored a secret pride.

Wine bottles emptied, hands sweat, knees trembled.

Everyone has a size-of-my-fish tale:

 

these were halibut off Alaska's coast.

Imagine the gain: every wart sloughed off;

our wrinkles smoothed while scars evanesced.

We felt sure to be loved, both damned and blessed.

 

From Staple No 60 (Summer 2004)