[ WP ] Most people can count themselves lucky if they get the chance to go on a single real adventure .

In high school I was the girl who watched the girls with long arms play violins so sweetly I thought maybe the ground beneath them wept. I was the girl who made a tunnel of my body so deep I was stuck, right in the heart of my belly. From there I swatted the unctuous insults like flies that landed on the wrong shitpie. 
 
 I was the girl who settled for the trombone because my instructor thought I looked like a girl who could blow. I was the girl who held my spit until I could n't stand it and thrust it against the back of the boy who played the tuba and who always felt the right time to hip check me was anytime. 
 
 I was the girl who, in college, slept on stone benches to avoid looking my roommates in the eye. Who curled up against giant murals depicting chickens with red necks on picket fences. Who thought chickens were the best of animal. After all, they kept trying and trying to fly. They must know, somewhere inside themselves, that they ca n't. 
 
 I was the girl who grew up and when offered a job in Japan, took a position as a clerk in my local library instead. When asked, I talked about my fear of swine flu ( Actually I think that's China. They seem to have a lot of pig news these days ). Really, I did n't want to be the tall girl again. Blowing and blowing on that trombone. 
 
 I was the woman who retired to the country to raise chickens and fainting goats. I grew hair on my chin to match them. When the children come, and they do, I tell them I never went anywhere. I never did anything. I tell them chickens are the very best of animals. And they believe me. 

