Rubbing Elbows

by Theodore Heil

We went to the party. There was no party. There was just jewelry. And necks. And earlobes. We went to the party precisely because there was no party. We wanted to be seen. We wanted to disappear. There were girls and boys at the party. They all wore shoes. The shoes were like jewelry. The party that was not a party was held by the train. The train had windows. The windows glittered. The windows were blood diamonds with people inside. Because there were diamonds with people outside at the party, we boycotted the train. We had shoes so we walked home. It was morning dark. We fell asleep, and when we woke up we had no jewelry, no necks, no earlobes, no shoes, no diamonds, no train, no windows. We ate salted fish, which we had in abundance.

Theodore Heil is the author of Movements (Bottlecap Press). He lives in New York.