how men spend lifetimes

How men spent lifetimes building hotels and never saw them finished. To lie by the pool on an oppressive summer’s day and never see it finished, to drift away.  Nothing shines like your reflection. I was so angry at you I hit the water, broke the sun into so many sparkling days. I have been here before, but I don’t remember. I know we cannot expect good things from these men, cannot expect they will finish the wall of the extension or remember to pick up the babies. This is the same kind of story. To lie idly by. I am beside myself: one mouth full of water, the other dry as midday. Praise your man, I say. Let me say it.∎

Words by Annie Fan. Art by Liv Fugger.