PARTISAN REVIEW
227
Driving to the funeral in back of the limo I sing, my mother
gave me a nickel/ to buy a pickle/ I didn't buy a pickle/ I bought
some chewing gum/ chew, chew, chew, chew, chewing gum/ how I
love chewing gum/ I'm crazy over chewing gum/ I chew, chew,
chew, chew.
"Do you remember the time, Noel,"
J
is talking to me from
the shade, "when I had to go into that country store in Chenas-–
I think it was Chenas, oh shit, maybe it was Macon, and ask for a
suppository for you?
Monsieur, j'ai besoin d'une suppositoire.
How do you say," leafing through her French phrases, "hemor–
rhoids,
mon amour."
I insisted against everyone's wishes that they
open the coffin . Hands crossed, eyes tightly shut, whiter than
white, how very still she was.
In the morning, I bring
J
downstairs. She has lost the vision
in her left eye and has also lost her sense of balance. She walks
taking tiny steps. I lose my patience. One hand around my waist,
the other hand sliding on the wall, "Am I falling, Noel? It feels
very much like I'm falling. Let's stop for a moment." She shuts
her eyes and rests her face against the wall.
"If
I could just stay this
way. I feel better now." Mitosis is the indirect and more common
method of cell division, in which the nuclear chromatin is formed
into a long thread which in turn breaks into segments that are split
lengthwise, the halves coming together in two sets, each forming
the nucleus for a new cell.
ISN'T THAT INTERESTING YOU GODDAM FUCK?
2. A northern constellation between Gemini and Leo, sup–
posedly representing a CRAB in shape.
"Hey," Loie says,
"Mommy's sleeping in the morning."
Her eyes half shut showing white, her hands twitch, her body
jerks involuntarily, but I am used to that by now. There are some
saliva drippings on her lip that I wipe off with a napkin. "Yeah.
She's pooped. Go play. Later we'll go into town together."
"WiIl you pull me on my wagon?"
"Ugh. Halfway there and halfway back. Okay?"
She nods yes and grabbing a lump of sugar goes off to dig
holes in the sand, and later tries to catch minnows with her min–
now catching net while she is floating in the tube that has the face
of an alligator painted on the front of it. Some people pass by
