Beyond Beyoncé On Parades and Leopards What do you do when you have a dream about Beyoncé coming to your hometown to get a haircut at Trends Salon and you are the one designated to walk her there. Three blocks. But somehow, she wants to see more of your city and is now asking questions so you show her around and people start to gather. She likes the attention, as do you until you remember how disheveled you look, and say, “I just realized I’m going to be in a lot of these photos and I didn’t even put on makeup.” She grins while you search frantically for your lipstick, which you put on like a five-year-old, smeared around your lips and then some. And now you are suddenly on Tower Avenue passing the Anchor Bar, a parade of drunks begins. Costumes with feathers and bright neon bodysuits. “It’s just another day in Superior,” you tell her. And then, somehow, you are at another stop. A stop she is requesting, and you must succumb to her desires even though you know it’s a bad part of town. It’s now time to leave, but you have a bicycle, a desk, and multiple bags to manage. You are at the top of a steep hill or stairwell or something. You get her to the bottom, to the street level, and somehow, she has managed to bring the bike. Now you climb back up and gather your items, napkins and things are there, little items taking up space in your belongings, and in your mind too, along with your desk and bags. It is taking too long, you worry for her safety and start to descend down what has now become a poor foothold of a maze of narrow stairs. A poverty-stricken family, perhaps immigrants, are climbing up. There is not enough room for you to pass them or them to pass you. At first you begin to move out of the way but they move for you, for you and your stuff, and your cougar, but really it’s a leopard, you just don’t have the word for it at the time, and this leopard becomes agitated, perhaps he doesn’t like the smoke-filled air, the smell of dung and he starts to twist his small head that is attached to the leash you carry him with. Sinking his one snaggly tooth into your right hand, by the corner between thumb and pointer finger, but closer to thumb. It burns. You cry out for help, but no one will come near not even the priest who stands directly behind. “The quickest way is the best way,” you tell yourself as you grab inside the jaw of this demon hanging onto you and rip his snaggly tooth from your hand, with it your flesh and blood comes forth but oddly, does not hurt. You reach the street level, the bike is there, but Beyoncé is not. “She couldn’t wait any longer,” someone informs you from the crowd which has grown. You catch a glimpse at your phone. Text messages, more than you get on your birthday have accumulated. “Do you really know Beyoncé?” “I heard you were in a parade with Beyoncé,” they read, including ones from two friends with the name Sara. One Sara you did text earlier that day, but the other Sara is an acquaintance from ten years ago. Weird she still has your number, you think. And then you see your sister who says a picture of you with the cougar with your face grimaced in pain and the cougar’s, you mean leopard’s face, too is circulating “I’m going to be a meme,” you cry! more excited for that then spending an hour with Queen B. And this, this is when you wake to your dull life and reflect and know this is not a fever dream. This is menopause.
IN THE LAST TWO WEEKS 📆
Something I Read: I finally finished David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. It only took me three months to complete! Works like this take me a bit longer as I want to savor the story and characters and the writing is so rich that I like to go back and reread paragraphs.
The last time I read his work was over 20 years ago in my college daze. I remembered disliking his work, almost as much as I dislike mango ice cream. This time was vastly different. Reading his words was like consuming bits of virtue and loveliness dissolving on my tongue. Delicious. And fulfilling. Here are some of my favorites:
“She had a cousin in the Life-Guards, with such long legs that he looked like the afternoon shadow of somebody else.”
“There can be no disparity in marriage like unsuitability of mind and purpose.”
“But fashions are like human beings. They come in, nobody knows when, why, or how; and they go out, nobody knows when, why, or how. Everything is like life, in my opinion, if you look at it in that point of view.”
Thank you for your masterpiece, Mr. Dickens!
Something I Heard: Litany of the Saints at Pope Francis’s funeral. Rest in peace Papa Francesco!
Something I Saw: SW Florida Wildlife.
What beautiful, evocative writing!!