Michelle S. Lee
Baser Life
After her babies fall asleep and her husband lies alongside her, she lies
bare in the stillness of a space shadowed with sex, seven years and photographs
of who they were then, recently, now, and tomorrow's laundry is piled precariously
on the dresser to shelve.
She spreads her mind into a man she met in the park muttering lines
for a play about shipwrecks and girls who want to be boys. She asked if she could
help even when she knew nothing about acting, and he said yes with eyes
bluer than God's. Then he took her hand and she came easily with him under
the trees and stood close enough to smell city on his skin and live
in it with him so deep she cried out for the girl she was, once. In the dark
she closes her eyes tight so she can see two people who met in words. I am
fire and air, she said to him. My other elements I give to baser life.
Bio
Michelle S. Lee is an associate professor of composition, creative writing, and literature at Daytona State College. She received her MA in creative writing and PhD in English Literature from the University of Texas at Austin. Recently, her work has been published with Northwind magazine, Architrave Press, and The Flagler Review, and will be included in an upcoming anthology by Red Bridge Press. For more information on what she's up to, visit doctormichellelee.blogspot.com.