PARABLE OF SENSITIVE SKIN | MEG FRANKLIN With water, glycerin and some cinnamon cyanide, I saw her hex the pet in her tummy. I saw my own Papa’s tear, dime-size and cone-like, sear his alcohol. It panted then on the stark aluminum and, once succinct, polished the lean metal. Laurel tried to pry and lick any caprice; God, as of late, has ceased to be her alcohol. She set real glue to adhere herself to Michael. In it, animals will smother like tin. My government sister, coming to our home, appeared as a lovely hunchback under a tinker’s wagon load. And the parable says, “You can die if you do Meth.” This sod she would have me enter reeks of acid, though, for a century, her spoon has stirred the barbarian aloe and leaf juice. In the tainted sorbet, I would come, only to expire. But I’ve journeyed aidless, she knows, through a land of nine pearls, serene in its largess. She’s laid the sign of acid and the glue of Michael and the parable of Meth all propped beside what has been. See, when she was twelve or thirteen, Laurel’s parents hid from God, and she found them. She saw their sallow clasp beneath the rocks. Meg Franklin translated “Parable of Sensitive Skin” from the ingredients list on a bottle of lotion. She is a recent graduate of the MFA program in creative writing at the University of Florida. Contributors.htmlshapeimage_3_link_0
COMMENTARY | POETRY | FICTION | SUMMER 2008  
THE BOBOLINIS S.L. WISENBERG HARD JOHN M. ANDERSON SEICHE JOSEPH DROGOS PARABLE OF SENSITIVE SKIN MEG FRANKLIN ALONE IN PARIS SUSAN ANDERSON BEGINNINGS EDWARD MC WHINNEY SEAMUS, THEN J.M. PATRICK WILL DEIRDRE BEAT THE ODDS? A.S. KING INSTEAD OF WHAT WE COULD HAVE SAID VINCENT REUSCH FROM THE EDITOR REVIEWS SUSAN MILLAR DUMARS FRANK CONROY ALEKSANDAR HEMON JEAN VALENTINE BETH HELMS ROBERT MACFARLANE ED REGIS DONALD RAY POLLOCK ABOUT US SUBMISSIONS ARCHIVES | SEARCH RECENT AWARD WINNERS:Bobolinis.htmlBobolinis.htmlHard.htmlHard.htmlSeiche.htmlSeiche.htmlParis.htmlParis.htmlBeginnings.htmlBeginnings.htmlSeamus.htmlSeamus.htmlDeirdre.htmlDeirdre.htmlSummer-2008.htmlSummer-2008.htmlContradiction-4.htmlReviews.htmlDuMars.htmlConroy.htmlHemon.htmlChalupa.htmlHelms.htmlMacfarlane.htmlRegis.htmlPollock.htmlContrary.htmlSubmissions.htmlArchives.htmlshapeimage_5_link_0shapeimage_5_link_1shapeimage_5_link_2shapeimage_5_link_3shapeimage_5_link_4shapeimage_5_link_5shapeimage_5_link_6shapeimage_5_link_7shapeimage_5_link_8shapeimage_5_link_9shapeimage_5_link_10shapeimage_5_link_11shapeimage_5_link_12shapeimage_5_link_13shapeimage_5_link_14shapeimage_5_link_15shapeimage_5_link_16shapeimage_5_link_17shapeimage_5_link_18shapeimage_5_link_19shapeimage_5_link_20shapeimage_5_link_21shapeimage_5_link_22shapeimage_5_link_23shapeimage_5_link_24shapeimage_5_link_25shapeimage_5_link_26shapeimage_5_link_27shapeimage_5_link_28shapeimage_5_link_29shapeimage_5_link_30