Jack and Jill

Reading to My Granddaughter

Once upon a time—

That relative Time, not a cousin or an aunt, maybe an estranged father who once copulated with Ambition and then couldn’t handle the responsibility of twins: Hope and Despair.

Jack and Jill—

Was it suicide or were they pushed? The CSI team discovered semen (they always discover semen), but never found a trace of hill, pail, or water. Eventually they concluded witnesses are unreliable.

Ate their curds and whey—

They’d given up meat at the insistence of their guru, but still succumbed to the temptations of mammary secretions aged with active cultures. After all, what is l ife without guilt? On fleece as white as snow— Laundry is the art of removing evidence, and she likes the way freshly scrubbed frocks hang and flutter on the line, the way rough boys tumble down the lane. Living ever-after— A point is not a moment; the river is not happiness. It carries salt to the sea, and only Humpty-Dumpty died without regret.