2007 - Vol. 4, Issue 5

I put my nearly empty glass on the bar, a little light headed as I returned my view to the television. A guy you'd never want to sit next to on a bus wailed, "Get up, c'mon get down with the sickness!"

My head bobbed involuntarily to the heavy beat of the music. Before me, Lenny the bartender appeared, nodding in a way that said, "You look like you're ready for another." Perhaps it's a sign you're spending a little too much time at a pub when the bartender can communicate with you telepathically.

Reading Mathilde Madden's latest book, Equal Opportunities, I couldn't stop thinking of Jon Voight. Not current–day, lizard–faced, worried–about–Angelina Jon Voight, but sexy, damaged war–hero Voight, in the classic post–Vietnam film, Coming Home, his biceps always glistening from some rehab exertion.

There isn't a war in Equal Opportunities, but, as in Coming Home, an older, nondisabled woman has sex with a younger, disabled man. Rather than being swept along by history, Madden's graduate student, Mary, can predict the attraction because Mary thinks wheelchairs are hot. Mary is a "devotee" — one who finds wheelchairs inherently erotic. David, a self–described former "shag machine" is beginning to rebuild his life two years after becoming paralyzed in an auto accident.

Tomorrow afternoon I have a date — the first one I've had in a year. But this morning, I got a hickey — from Jersey, my nearly blind retired service dog. She likes to be affectionate in the morning, and she usually gives my face a few quick licks when I wake up. She is saying, "I'm so glad you're awake; now you can feed me."

However, on occasion, if Jersey's feeling extra lovey–dovey, she will "nibble" me. Nibbling is not like biting or nipping. It's a grooming behavior, indicating affection. Basically, the dog acts like I have a flea and presses her teeth against me and makes tiny biting motions. Usually she nibbles my arm, and it's endearing as long as my sleeve is down. But when bare skin gets pinched between those sharp little teeth, it hurts!

Away from the blazing sun highway,
I follow my uncle,
whose mechanical skill

I have never mastered:
the saw cuts crooked,
the screwdriver slips.