For Breakfast, I Sing The Blues | Mary Lynn Reed

I’m not a fan of nonsense, Gertrude Stein whispers in my ear, as she tries to remove my blouse. I’m wearing the blue satin shirt with the lace and the frilly collar and the difficult buttons. She fumbles them, gives me a stern look. The salad is not pleasing, she says. I stroke her forehead, and purr—I am the cake, the orange, the dark room in your party. You were looking for something, then you found it. Now my cup is broken.

————
Mary Lynn Reed is a fiction writer and poet. Her work is forthcoming in Colorado Review and has appeared in The MacGuffin, Whistling Shade, Grey Sparrow Journal, and Per Contra, among other places. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Maryland.