Girls Overheard While Assembling a Puzzle

By Mary Szybist

Are you sure this blue is the same as the

blue over there? This wall’s like the

bottom of a pool, its

color I mean. I need a

darker two-piece this summer, the kind with

elastic at the waist so it actually

fits. I can’t

find her hands. Where does this gold

go? It’s like the angel’s giving

her a little piece of honeycomb to eat.

I don’t see why God doesn’t

just come down and

kiss her himself. This is the red of that

lipstick we saw at the

mall. This piece of her

neck could fit into the light part

of the sky. I think this is a

piece of water. What kind of

queen? You mean

right here? And are we supposed to believe

she can suddenly

talk angel? Who thought this stuff

up? I wish I had a

velvet bikini. That flower’s the color of the

veins in my grandmother’s hands. I

wish we could

walk into that garden and pick an

X-ray to float on.

Yeah. I do too. I’d say a

zillion yeses to anyone for that.

Copyright Credit: Mary Szybist, "Girls Overheard While Assembling a Puzzle" from Incarnadine. Copyright © 2013 by Mary Szybist. Reprinted by permission of Graywolf Press, www.graywolfpress.org.