(c) 1/12/2023
I didn’t sign any papers;
it was mutual. A handshake. Culturally
driven. Just the way things are.
The team of umbrageous
doctors contained the Capitalist bourgeoisie, Land Barons, and a Deaconess spouting
sacramental catechumens
for the sake of modesty. Through their surgical intervention my tongue would
become my husband’s tongue. Sutured. The last domestic stitch he would undergo.
I saw him unconscious on
his own metal table, breathing through a sheer shroud of gauze. Delicate.
Almost pretty. An anesthetic fog. Not even
his vulnerability bothering him.
I’d been told that having only
bravado and masculine posturing, he would recover by speaking my words. He
would summarize books I’d read and told him about as if he’d read them. My
meticulously formed opinions would be his conclusions. I thought I was fine
with this. If my words came from a male mouth, then they might be listened to. If
my tongue were patched onto his tongue, he would finally say meaningful things.
Beautiful, fanciful prose, like a fountain from his mouth.
Almost too late I realized
the lie. I was the only one able to speak my truths. I struggled through the drugged
stupor, and brandishing a scalpel, I killed him. Many say I over-reacted. That I
crossed a line. That I should have aimed for the Doctors. Others, that I am truly,
a woman.