On the Shelf

Susan Isla Tepper

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This container is somewhat larger than my last one, this one is glass on all sides which gives me a perfect view of everyone coming and going, who is kissing who and believes it’s in private, the groping, the skirt coming up, trousers unzipped, they are smug in their little sex conspiracies but I’m watching them, every second, all of them, taking it in, the gasps, the moans, even the screeches when his might be a little too large for hers, yet they manage to keep on going, perhaps some preservation of the species gene at play, I don’t know, but I have to try hard not to be heard giggling under the fake acacia someone thought would make for a good visual, though the branches keep me from getting a good night’s rest because in order to rest I need to extend my legs, and these legs are not short, by any stretch, no pun intended, these legs have spent a good deal of time cramping in my various containers, but what do these craft people care, they don’t give a damn, these glass blowers and builders of tombs and boxes to house the dead, what do these adulterers care if they were to somehow notice me here on the shelf, crouched, sullen, bored by the same few ways of getting laid, I mean what does anyone care about really?

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Susan Isla Tepper is a twenty-year writer and the author of 11 published books of fiction and poetry.  Her stage play Crooked Heart concerns artist Jackson Pollock in his later years, and will be part of ORIGIN THEATRE COMPANY, Plays in May, in NYC.  Susan has two new novels forthcoming.  www.susantepper.com

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