EVE

There's a fat lady in love.
She spends nights with her lover,
just a slight man bent-up from the cold,
but he can strike her very hard..
They spend nights on her dirty sheets,
his small body pressed under hers
and her large red arms rub
the cold back out of his flesh.
They are fiercely passionate together,
her weight almost hurts her man,
and every morning he says he's leaving
'til she cries down her cheeks in his hands.
Then he returns to the cold
while she waits at home
thinking-up ways to make herself pretty
for the evening.


	The fat of her thumb makes it hard to manipulate small objects.  She does not paper-clip the 
reports when people are watching.  She has a special system.  She grips a letter-opener in her fat hand and 
uses the point to pry the paper-clip.  Then she slides it on the papers.  When she does this, it looks like 
she's been fat a long time.
	She works in a gray office building: very tall with small windows.  Her boss is a small hairy 
man.  His name is Mr. Wilson.  His face is red above the folds of flesh at his neck.  Mr. Wilson is an ugly 
man and the way he talks makes you think of his red face.  She is in love with Mr. Wilson.
	When she goes to lunch, she is self-conscious about riding the elevator.  The suited bodies press 
areound her.  She sits outside on a bench near the office and eats her sandwich.  People look at the comedy 
of a fat woman eating.  At the hot-dog stand she can see Mr. Wilson's folded neck.  It rolls up and down 
on short dark hairs as he eats or talks.  Seeing him outside makes her heart flutter.
	Mr. Wilson stays in his office.  At 4:55 she puts the smooth black cover on the computer.  At 
4:58 she sweeps one fat hand across the desk pushing the pens and paper-clips into the drawer.  When the 
zero card flips down on the clock it is 5:00.  She goes home without saying good-bye to Mr. Wilson; he 
does not like to be disturbed.
	The half-hour ride on the bus is a familiar pain.  She is numb.  She gets off tweo blocks from her 
apartment.  The street is gray and empty, though there are people and cars all around.  The climb to the 
third floor is difficult.
	She enters quietly and doesn't wake her lover.  He is sick in bed.  She stands in the middle of the 
bedroom and takes off all her clothes.  Her flesh is round and pale and folded at the hips.  His too thin 
body looks sick and cold.  She lies down next to her lover and the bed cvreaks.  She pulls his thin body to 
hers and her big red arms rub the cold out of his flesh.
	
	On Sunday she hears her lover wake up before her.  He pulls his weak body from the bed.  He 
puts on his hsirt and pants.  His coat hangs by the door.  His clothes sway loosely on his thin frame as he 
waks down the stairs.  Later, she wakes up alone.
	In the afternoon she goes across town to see Jack.  The pain of the bus is the same as during the 
week.  He lives in a tenement.  She has a keyu.  He is asleep on dirty sheets.  His skin is red and blotchy 
from too much drink.  She rubs her large warm hand over his brow.  It is warm and sweaty.  She wakes 
him gently.
	She has brought food.  He eats five eggs and bread as if he had not eaten for along time.  She eats 
two eggs and drinks water.  In the evening they make love, her large body pressed onto his.  Their bodies 
are warm together on the dirty sheets.
	Standing naked beside the bed, she pulls the large ddress over her round flesh.  She leavbes 
money for food on the dresser.  She kiesses him goodbye.  His eyes are slim and wet.  He will spend the 
money on drink.

	Monday, she is in Mr. Wilson's office.  He dictates notes from behind his small desk.  When she 
is not writing, she looks up at his splotched hairy hands on the desk; they are small and strong.
	She rides down the elevator with Mr. Wilson.  She does not feel the stares of those around her.  
At luch she does not eat.  She is nervous.  At the hot-dog stand Mr. Wilson's folded neck is rolling up and 
down as he talkes.  She cannot take her eyes off it.
	At 4:55 the smooth black cover is already over the computer.  At 4:58 her large hands are pulling 
at each-other's flesh on the clean desk.  At 5:00 she stands and knocks lightly on the door.
	"Come in", Mr. Wilson says from inside.
	"I'm going home", she says.  Mr. Wilson does nbot answer.  His red face is lined with fatigue.
	"Do you want to have dinner?", she says.
	"I have to work".
	"I'm going home".
	Outside the bus it is dark; inside the bus seems uglier.  Her feet are tired when she gets off.  The 
cars and trees on her street are dark and ugly.  The three flights to her apartment seem very long.
	In her apartment her lover sits at the table.  Hie is vbery pale.  He does nbot greet her.  She goes 
to bed alone.

	Standing in the bedroom she lifts her blouse over her head.  |She pushes the skirt off onbe leg at a 
time.  When she takes off her bra, her skin rolls together.  She is wrapped round in the covers as she 
sleeps.
	It is dark when she wakes.  She feels her lover's thin body breathing beside her.  She rubs her arm 
along his thin back.  Her fingers feel his bones like tiny objhects.  There, under the covers, they make love 
and sleep.