Desire
By Mary Beth Hines
she teaches me crave must have and I beg because her brown eyes open and close, alive, and prettier than Jo Ellen Darcy’s blues plus, the way her two perfect, pink-bowed ponytails brush her pinafored shoulders but mainly, it’s that you pull her string and she talks and talks, buttery-voiced like a dream girlfriend will you play with me tell me a story please brush my hair and I do, one afternoon in Jo Ellen’s basement playroom, thrilled to be let in, I find that doll and cling till Jo Ellen tires of me, says your shorts are too short, I can see your fat butt and I flee home where I plead with mother, father, God, and my best bet, Santa, who gave that doll to give-and-grab-back Jo Ellen last Christmas, now, clearly, I must have my own, and defenses down, I let them all know how much I need a dependable friend and really what girl doesn’t yearn as I do—all those Chatty Cathys beamed into our living rooms amidst Flintstones and Road Runner cartoons, and when I close my eyes, tune them out, I can almost feel my finger hook around that little hoop, my pull and release, and her I love you rings and rings
Mary Beth Hines is the author of Winter at a Summer House (Kelsay, 2021). Her writing is widely published, with her most recent work appearing, or soon to appear, in Cider Press Review, Solstice Literary Magazine, Whale Road Review, and elsewhere. See marybethhines.com.
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