Suburban Dream
After A Family on Their Lawn One Sunday in Westchester, NY, 1968, by Diane Arbus
I dreamt all of this---
The way the sweat on my back binds me to this
cushion, grimy with the sun and heat.
I hear my children fighting over their plastic
pool, and tune them out to the older frequency
of the trees. A storm is coming.
My husband shields his eyes; a headache or
a bad debt, the glare burning him
pink.
Only one of us can decide who will
jostle the other out of this sleep
with the low mosquito drone and the
ice cream truck jangle of nerves.
I feel the burn on my face, already beginning
to peel.
Sarah Nichols lives and writes in Connecticut. She is the author of five chapbooks, including Dreamland for Keeps (Porkbelly Press, forthcoming, 2018) and How Darkness Enters a Body (Porkbelly Press, forthcoming, 2018). She is looking forward to her next tattoo.