The Slanted and The Bed (Brown Love Fable)
Words by Ayling Zulema Dominguez | Art by Gabi Magaly
How funny, no?
That we fell in love on a slanted bed
and took Polaroids of each other at different angles just to prove we could love past the barriers within us and each morning I would discover
I’d rolled closer to you
nearly knocked you over and onto the floor, you’d say and I’d assign blame
to that which held us easy to blame
when you’re not holding
surprised myself at the giving and not receiving of a scolding
a heavy need for unlearning so I let us roll into that portal held our breath
as we took a giant baby step into this crooked new cradle
uprooted so much inherited shame we became a fable
of a brown love so stable
as it soared on those cheap sheets from the dollar store
2 for 24
I always did love a good bargain and while we’re at it,
grab a pack of those sheet fasteners that stretch and grasp across corners my first lesson in holding on
tangled up with you at a type of angle gravity would think stupid but fuck it,
cuz’ what’s it even mean to be straight anyway?