My and Meghan Lamb’s paths have twice crossed.
Lamb’s “Inventory” is in Vestiges no. 2 alongside two of my poems. More
recently, Lamb’s “All Your Most Private Places” appears in Almost Crashing no.
1—I’ve a selection from Notes on in the issue.
“Inventory” is about an orderly whose job requires
an attention to detail, illustrated by his knowledge of patients’ old and “new
scars, bruises, bites, and injuries.” To his life outside work, he’s
inattentive. It’s thus that his personal life vanishes—almost without his
notice. Soon after he and his girlfriend have sex
(initiated by his girlfriend, and barely a distraction from work, TV, and his
concern with his own scent), she dumps him. She is clear about it, and about
why, but he isn’t listening. Instead—and this is my favorite moment in the
story—“he’s thinking of the snowmen he has built throughout his life.”
He is,
it’s made clear, an empty figure.
“All Your Most Private Places” is also concerned
with work and sex—and sex work. Lamb’s sex scenes are not totally un-erotic,
but she emphasizes not being there:
She closes her eyes. Her nipples rub against the linen. Sweat gleams on her stomach. She feels like she’s floating, falling into nothingness.
But more than work and sex, “All…” looks at
fantasy. Museum fantasy (the past was like ____ ), magazine fantasy (“…she edits
photos of rich people at events. She blurs and touches up and does good”), and
sex fantasy (Playboy magazine, prostitutes who care for their clients—“He
wanted her to like him.”). And in the background, death by nukes.
[ image: cover, Always Crashing no. 1—when you get the chance, view it with 3D glasses. ]
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