What he saw

He saw that she liked oranges red sweaters babies’ toes and he saw that she walked

with her right knee pointed in and her lips fissured again and again when other

people were talking and she was thinking about gardening or wedding cakes he saw

that she liked to smell good with earthy smells and not French ones and not Italian

ones and Spanish ones she sometimes liked if they were bought for a special occasion

and in a pretty bottle. He saw that she collected pretty bottles with and without

stoppers he saw that sometimes when she was excited and talking to him he needed

to remind her to stop at the single stop light on the corner on way to the grocery store

he saw when they were there her eyes were held by a bucket of sugar on the lower

shelf he saw that they never needed that much sugar that she wanted it and that she

wanted people to use that much sugar and he saw that she wanted people he saw that

she was playful after dinner and was teased when he acted irritated by it and became

more playful he saw that she tickled and pinched and he saw that she bit and he saw

that he could carry her outside without protest and put her in the cabin of the old

wooden houseboat he saw that she swept it sometimes and he saw her under him

under the small cabin window he saw that the window was like the kind that are on

the sides of toy ships or for unwieldy pirates in coloring books he saw that she would

probably act like one of those pirates later and put her head through the window he

saw that now they were having sex saw that the spiders in the corners watched he

saw red curls he saw always he saw if they got too close he saw her under him he saw

that she liked oranges red sweaters babies’ toes he saw that she walked with her right

knee pointed in.