DC PLACES ISSUE

Richard Peabody

 

I'M IN LOVE WITH THE MORTON SALT GIRL

I'm in love with the Morton Salt girl.
I want to pour salt in her hair and watch
her dance. I want to walk with her through the
salt rain and pretend that it is water. I want to
get lost in the Washington Cathedral and follow her
salt trail to freedom.

I want to discover her salt lick in the forests of Virginia.
I want to stand in line for hours to see her walk on in
the middle of a movie only to have the film break and watch salt
pour out and flood the aisles. I want to sit in an empty theater
up to my eyeballs in salt and dream of her.

When I go home she will be waiting for me in her white dress
and I will drink salt water and lose my bad dreams.
I will seek the blindness of salt, salt down my wounds,
hang like a side of ham over the curtain rod in the bathroom
and let her pour salt directly on my body.

When she is done I will lick her salty lips with my tongue
and walk her down the stairs into the rain, wishing that I
could grow gills and bathe in her vast salt seas.


Richard Peabody is the founder and co-editor of Gargoyle Magazine and editor (or co-editor) of thirteen anthologies including Alice Redux (Paycock Press, 2006), Conversations with Gore Vidal (Univ. of Mississippi Press, 2005), Grace and Gravity: Fiction by Washington Area Women (Paycock Press, 2004), A Different Beat: Writings by Women of the Beat Generation (Serpent's Tail/High Risk, 1997), and Mondo Barbie (St. Martin's Press, 1993). He is the author of the novella Sugar Mountain (Argonne Hotel Press, 2000), two short story collections, and six poetry collections including Last of the Red Hot Magnetos (Paycock Press, 2004) and I'm in Love with the Morton Salt Girl (Paycock Press, 1979). He has taught at the University of Virginia, Georgetown University, The Writer's Center, and at Johns Hopkins University, where he was presented the Faculty Award for Distinguished Professional Achievement.

 

Published in Volume 7, Number 3, Summer 2006.

 

To read more by this author:
Richard Peabody
Three DC Editors: Profiles of Caresse Crosby, William F. Clare, and Merrill Leffler, by Richard Peabody (The Profiles Issue)
Richard Peabody: Audio Issue