c. l. bledsoe : “it just doesn’t work like that”

First he was young, then he was old, then he was young again. Same with the presence of hair, teeth, tan—all gone, then there, then gone again. There was a young girl whom he didn't kiss, then one he did, then another he didn't. All more or less the same, all shifting, ever shifting from one presence to another.

 

He sat on a couch watching flickering lights, unable to focus, then saw perfectly, then saw dark blurs. Outside, trees grew and died and dogs barked and were silent. He reread the books of his youth and rediscovered the joy of unreality. Around him, a handful of people refused to shift back to their protean shapes. They glared and mumbled and patted and smiled. Some of them wanted things that they didn't realize had reverted. Some were after something they'd never had, being someone they'd never been. "It just doesn't work like that," he said, or would've if he remembered how to speak.

 

C. L. Bledsoe has recent work in Free Verse, Foliate Oak, Barnwood, Borderlands, & previously in Mud Luscious. His first chapbook, _____(want/need) was recently published by Plan B Press. He is an editor for Ghoti Magazine .

 

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