2   The sound of their whispering and of their feet rubbing together could be heard by the yellow kitchen wall, but it did not know that it was a sound made by feet (the bed was just out of sight). And all voices seemed loud to the wall, even whispering voices, even the sound of feet rubbing together. The kitchen wall thought this sound, a familiar sound, was coming from the attic, or the bathroom, or from outside, beyond the thin curtains. Maybe it was the sound of someone coming, a return, a flying machine.

GEORGE WASHINGTON’S DENTURES

Like Deana Lawson’s Nation, everything has value, even black materiality, even gold teeth, even spaces that resist authority—even the ceiling, or the corner of a bedroom, even the greased scalp.

BARBERSHOP

The brown hair was frizzy around her neck, and around her forehead there was some frizziness. Her ears held six piercings each and six earrings each, twelve. Her top lip was full, and her nose hung down almost to the full top lip, and the bottom lip was less full. Frozen, her profile was frozen, and the toothpick between the uneven lips, a branch between the lips. A blue plastic bag was wrapped around her neck, billowing behind her like a cape. Her top came so low it seemed as if she was wearing nothing except this blue plastic bag.

The diner window showed her profile, her neck, the plastic bag behind her, the collarbone. The top was concealed by the wall and the restaurant siding. Her face was in the big big window. The hot sauce was being poured over everything: the fries and the chicken, the grits and the grapes. The maple syrup was being poured over everything, over the fried meat.

The waitress carried a jug of water. This woman drank gallons of water the way her skin was. A swan. On her head a hive. When she laughed her head bent back.

And her eyes were everywhere, her eyes traveled, they caught the whole room, and she made eye contact with the person across from her, with the waitress and with the manager. She ate cherries and grapes two at a time, spitting the seeds into an ashtray. When she ate she let the toothpick fall to the table. On her tongue there was a tongue ring and a cherry pit. The seed. Gold hoop earrings.

Around her the diner seemed to be falling apart; the walls were stained. The counters were stained and the floors were stained. The aprons were stained with sauce and grease. The forks were not thoroughly cleaned. The flowers were drooping and dying.