Jessy Randall lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado. She is an occasional guest editor of Snakeskin. The 2River View has published Dorothy Surrenders, an online, illustrated collection of her work.

The Diminishing Father My father slices off the tips of two fingers with an electric saw. I cannot picture this -- my father doing physical labor? My father crying? Blood? But I can picture him decreasing in mass slowly losing more and more parts of himself until there is nothing left and I mean NOTHING not me and my brother not progeny we are not part of him. He is only part of us. Dream of Peeing I dreamed I was looking for some place to pee, and then I was peeing. I woke up and Maggie was the bathroom. I said "Maggie, may I come in -- I dreamed I was peeing." She let me in and said from inside the shower "It's nice to have dreams." I said "and now my dream is coming true." Cactus I accidentally let my plant die Went away for vacation with the window shut and the heater came on (although I wasn't there to feel cold) and my small cactus keeled over. I came back to a hot place and a plant, soft, that should have been sharp and hollow, that should have been firm. We Rang the Bell at the Restaurant We went somewhere so we would have something to talk about. Something to remember, to build the history of us, the story that is ongoing instead of (as it seemed for years) over. But did it really seem over? To me it did not, but this was always a secret. We drove through rolling hills (that really rolled!) and we tested my new birth control device, and rang the bell at the restaurant. We breathed "I love you" with every breath. We held hands at the seminars and pressed our legs against each other's at the banquet. In the hotel room I laughed so hard I hurt my back. You put your arm around my shoulders while black and white silent pictures reeled by on a screen. After you, there can be no other lovers. The sentence "You are my true love" is suddenly fresh; it sounds new, and beautiful, and even possible. (c) Jessy Randall 2002

Jessy Randall lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado. She is an occasional guest editor of Snakeskin. The 2River View has published Dorothy Surrenders, an online, illustrated collection of her work.