Wednesday, June 09, 2010

A Busker

Lita performs contortions. Her hair and limbs twist together around her legs. Looks like wily serpents tempting all of humanity to fall further. A crowd whoops. Lita's eyelashes tickle the small of her back. She balances a bowl of fruit on her belly. She twists again, jumps up, and swallows the sword that had balanced on her pointed toes.

Applause.

Adam Cross stands behind the crowd and wishes he'd never divorced Lita. He wonders how she lost all that weight and where she learned these acrobatic tricks.

Lita doesn't notice her Ex studying her from his distance. But her guardian notices the bearded abuser and plans a quick way to take care of Mr. Cross. No one should remind Lita of her past, or else the experiment will fail.

Laughter.

Lita bows. She notices a new couple in the front row holding hands. She makes a wish and throws flame. Some of the observers toss her a buck before moving on to the next distraction.

70 degrees and low clouds in this Southern California town today. Not a soul suspects the cosmic drama playing out amidst these ordinary days' events. Another earthquake in Baja. No human felt it.

1 comment:

Franklin Beaumont said...

This was wonderful. So intriguing, so much going on beyond the margins. Then the last paragraph takes the piece to another level altogether.