Did I rearrange my Flashback Friday posts in order to have New Love post on Valentine’s Day? Is a pig’s ass pork? The best part is that it’s not necessarily about love. Well, come to think of it, the best part is actually the fact that once I got the story published and sent the link to my family both my Mom and Grandmom commented on how romantic it was. That is, until I told them that the original title was Wearing Her, and urged them to reread it.
This poem was very loosely based off of Silence Of The Lambs. I imagined an unrequited love situation where the guy becomes obsessed with the thought of being with a woman. So obsessed that apparently being with her isn’t enough, he needs to be her. Or more specifically, he needs to be inside of her. He needs to wear her, literally.
So, the poem itself is the point in which he has completed his transformation. He and her are now one, and he’s admiring his new look in the mirror. Imagine if Buffalo Bill dawned a full body Texas Chainsaw Massacre-esque skin-suit. Yeah, you see it now.
At first, I went back and forth between using Wearing Her and New Love as titles. Wearing her seemed to be too obvious. I wanted you to discover the fact that he was wearing her, I didn’t want it to be on your mind going in. New Love, honestly isn’t a title that I’m a fan of. But, it worked for the A to Z challenge, so I went with it. When I sent it off to Friday Flash Fiction the new name came to me, Together. That’s what I’m sticking with.
I had to tweak the story a bit in order to get it down to 100 words, but the meat and potatoes is still there. It still reads as a love poem, just as much as a cautionary tale. And that’s how I like it. Like the arrow in FEDEX, you should have to read it more than once in order to see it. And then find yourself unable to unsee it.
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Until next time, wear yourself.
Alphonso Francis White 