I mean, what is the measure
of his stature?, Jilly said
as she made her usual salad.
I feel the soles on his earth
fill his universe. I feel
his thighs are what contain
the beat of the heavens. I
love so much I have run out
of so's to describe my heart.

His body, she continues, is
an aquamarine; scintillates
me to do all kinds of nasty
things and smile about them,
even as I dream of grandma.
Now that we have had tongues,
I feel that we can be joined.
Linn says, has he said any
thing to you? Naw, Jillson,

retorts, but I do not need
words to know love. All I
need is the hunk of his bod
to know that true love is all
he knows for me as I roam all
the ether ways of his hallways.
Linn, I know you have felt
this way afore. Sure, Linn
laughs, the last time I ate.

Herb, Linn's fourth husband says,
I mean, quietly, you pursue meaning,
as openly, you show an indifference
to it. I sit here at work and can't
come up with a reason why I loved

and married you, and then, divorced
you in less than a year. Linn wants
to quote Kant, but says instead, I
have a notorious difficulty with modes.
I wanted to recapture your utterances

in a marriage license. Wanted to, like,
establish and formulate the experience
of litany in an old man I met west
of the west side of Cleve. Herb wants
to laugh, but instead, eats a weenie.

It's lunchtime. Linn, who is forty
but never complains about her IQ,
says, my body yearns for the climax
of ultra-thick love. Herb starts
to reconsider remarriage as he spouts,

what's ya doing later tonight over
there in Parma? And Linn laughs and
chats, I am less agreeable of your
ambitions, but only, because you forgot;
I have since, again, tied the knot.

She's not exempt from languor,
or the fever of finishing jobs.
John was talking to his boss,
Len, at Grisl's Tool And Die.
Len said, guess the wife is
acting up again. And that
is all he said as he and his
men got back to the job at
hand. John did his work as
he thought about Linda and
what his next step would be.

At this exact moment Linda
was doing her nails. Saturday,
after John's work, the plan
was to go out for dinner and
catch a movie. As her work
dried, she thought it was
a good idea to not do a wash
today, not mop the floor and
not vacuum the three thousand
square foot of carpeting in
their home on Lee near Harvard.

John was grinding some special
washers. He thought he would
leave her that night, after
they saw Forrest Gump, and go
sleep at his mom's. Next day
he would get a paper and find
a cheap place in Hough, keep
his job, and let the kids see
he loved em and would visit.
Too much thought. He slipped
and his hand found the buffer.