Melanie Browne's Alice was thirsty.

Tim couldn't remember the first time he saw her severed head. He thought he was hallucinating. He'd been working long hours at the Opera. He made a phone call to his internist, who recommended an extended break from rehearsals, and prescribed various pills for nerves. Tim did as he was told. None of that worked. He continued to see Alice’s severed head.
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It's no big deal to wake up
and carry a satchel with the death
of the dinosaurs in it
all day.

While elsewhere a person
metamorphosizes into a soldier
the meadow of his mind
torn up day by day

A woman had discovered
herself in an epic sense
conquered land.

Arriving home in hunger, with thirst,
her house disagreeably con-
fined her.

This thought pricked:
Must I dwell in a musty dull place?

On the day the eviction notice was stapled to the front door Doris waited for the dusty Buick to pull out of the gravel driveway before going to wake Arnie in the back den. The morning light streamed in through the hall as she nervously wrung a thin kitchen towel in her hands. She paused outside of the bathroom and waited for one of the boys to finish up.

"Go wake your brothers," she said to the oldest, Isaac.

"Awe, Ma, no way. We all sleepin' in today. You know we ain't get back to the house until two."