Ode to Stepmoms Stuck in Washing Machines by July Westhale

"Happy families may very well all be alike, what does she know"

JULY WESTHALE
Ode to Stepmoms Stuck in Washing Machines 

She would get the flowers herself.
Someone must be in want of a wife.
Someone in want of a fortune must be
in want of being a wife. A green & yellow
bird trapped in a corner yells Allez vous-en!
‍Many years later, she did not reminisce
about the day her father took her to see ice;
it is highly unlikely she ever faced
a firing squad. In her younger and more
vulnerable years, yes, it was her father’s advice
that haunted her. Happy families
may very well all be alike, what does she know.
About flowers, yes. Call her anything
you’d like. To women, all alike in dignity.
A call to the goddess of memory. It was always
the best and worst of all times. When she woke
from her bed, she found herself transformed
into a monstrous vermin. Can she still
get the flowers herself? I should mention
she was sleeping in what once had been
the gymnasium. They’re out there. She’s in here.
It was a queer sultry summer when they executed
her, not by firing squad, but by tedium. What
choice did she have, but to reach inside?

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Read our interview with July on the practice of joy through curiosity here.