Treehouse

from Rose Wednesday, author of  Cousin Jeff:

1. My teeth. Why do they feel weird when I drink cold water? Why do they sometimes itch? Teeth shouldn’t itch.
2. My couch. It’s from the 1980s and I’m pretty sure it’s actually made of asbestos. An identical couch appeared in an episode of True Detective in the home of an old woman who worshipped the devil, which is troubling in a different way.
3. My eyebrows. They have some kind of horrible eyebrow mange and I really hope no one can see it can you see it?
4. Hand-addressed letters on nice watermarked paper from places of employment telling me that I am not being hired.
5. That feeling I get when I suddenly snap back into my body after floating for days in a fugue state, realizing suddenly that I am a woman, that I am getting older, that this (gestures at apartment, at unopened mail, at devil/asbestos sofa, at own teeth) is all real, that this exists, and that this. after all, is what I have to work with.

♦