Mobirise


Individual Voices / Natural Forms

Winter, 2006


Brendan Constantine


Dionysia Nervosa


The statue of Bacchus sank into the lawn

without a trace.

Now my friend stands there, holding a cup
of wine the same way.

            What kind of car did your sister get?
he asks.

             Dad bought her a Buick Electra.
I say.

My friend has a hole in his shirt
    above his stomach
        size of his thumb.

        Let me understand this, he asks,
        Your father got your sister a car
        called 'Electra'?

I smile. He slips his thumb into the hole.

        And I suppose when she got it home
        she stabbed the headlights out?

        Wrong tragedy,
I tell him.

        Oedipus blinded himself
        with a broach. My sister
        just needs to get around.