In which I discover the source of all power

23rd March 2010

I developed late for a child but probably too soon for adolescence. It’s like I was 12 and showering when for the first time I realized there was a secret nook at the far end of my torso, like when an infant I discovered my own toes. I gave myself a stinging infection with the bar soap twice that year. I could not be pried. I prodded with toothbrush handles, inspected with compact mirrors, opened wide and closed tight my legs. Life rocked with the unease of discovery, I was fascinated, started foregoing panties, flirting with the slimmer shampoo bottles. The bathroom breathed new, not since the days of the primary-hued stool we stood on to reach the sink to wash, to make fists into liquid hand-soap bubbles.

5 responses

  1. Jim Murdoch comments:

    So how come it was a nook and not a cranny?

  2. Ani Smith comments:

    I think maybe because cranny sounds too much like granny?

  3. ellie comments:

    me too!

    though my secret lower torso region was neither a nook nor a cranny. more a cavern. sometimes just a gash.

  4. jem comments:

    I like the way this slides between innocence and understanding, without ever been shocking.

  5. Ani Smith comments:

    Haha, Ellie. Sounds like magic.

    Jem, you are sweet to me.

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