Wendy Mnookin

I watched from a window as kids careened through the yard, playing games whose rules I didn’t get. Parents stood around in knots of conversation, drinking beer from the cooler, or wine in plastic cups. Potato chips were crushed into the lawn. Was it July 4th? I was helping my friend in the kitchen— slicing

I don’t know how I figured out about those pills. Maybe I asked her. Maybe she thought it was best to be honest. Or maybe she didn’t say a word and neither did I. I didn’t take one every day. Only once in a while I went to her bathroom casually, as if I might

My gym, all gussied up
with streamers, balloons

Huge and unembarrassed, my friendfloated like a Buddha in the small pool.I drank iced tea, gradedchlorine-splashed paperson The Mayor of Casterbridge. When she had her babyon a bed covered with a shower curtain,I did what I was told, sealedthe placenta in a plastic bag,stashed it in the freezer. Life was breathless in its daringor boring

My father and I
stroll by the sea.
He’s in a white suit …

My father spins and spins me
till, released, I stumble forward,
arms outstretched, clutching …