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.