Scarlet Letters: Delicious Mouth

<body background="graphics/background.gif" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" link="#990000" vlink="#666666" alink="#FFFFFF"> <p><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="724"> <tr> <td width="488"><font face="Georgia" size="2"><table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" width="468"> <tr> <td align="LEFT" width="1" rowspan="3" valign="BOTTOM"><font face="Georgia" size="2" color="#CCCCCC">..</font></td> <td align="CENTER" valign="MIDDLE"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="440"> <tr> <td align="CENTER" valign="TOP"><b><font face="Georgia" size="5"><img src="graphics/onthedottedline.gif"></font></b></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT"><b><font face="Georgia">Delicious Mouth</font></b></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="RIGHT"><b><font face="Georgia"><a href="bios_m2z.shtml#Tuch" title="click for author info">Becky Tuch </a></font></b></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="CENTER"><b><font face="Georgia" size="5"><img src="graphics/onthedottedline.gif"></font></b></td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="CENTER" valign="MIDDLE"><font face="Georgia" size="2"><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="2"> <tr> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP"> <p><font face="Georgia" size="2">She is sitting alone in a cafe at noon, sipping dark black coffee and letting the hot, bitter fluid soak deep into her tongue. Each time her lips touch the porcelain cup she remembers them. It's easy to forget your lips, but this afternoon, as she licks the rim of her mug, slurping up the extra coffee, she feels her lips, knows exactly what they look like, where they are most sensitive, and how they taste. She's never been so aware of her lips in her life. </font></p> <p><font face="Georgia" size="2">A young man passes her, staring over her table as he carries tea to his booth. She smiles to herself, pleased that he looked and grateful he didn't stay. She wants to be alone with her mug, its firm rim and the warm sensation it brings to the edge of her mouth. She wants to taste the dark privacy of her morning and swallow it in her own good time. </font></p> <p><font face="Georgia" size="2">Her lips, as she remembers them in her mind, are small, thin slivers of pale pink flesh. The points on top are not sharp, but sweetly curved. The edges, just where her lips become the inside of her mouth, are darker-a juicy crimson color. They are most sensitive right there, on that edge, where the nerves become moist. All along her tongue are the tastes of coffee, skin, water. </font></p> <p><font face="Georgia" size="2">Two women pass but they don't look her way. The women are holding hands and talking. She listens to their voices, one deep, the other high and squeaky. She wonders what it might be like to taste their voices. If such a thing were possible, she might like to slink into those women's mouths, swim across their tongues, and drink their voices like juice. She imagines them: one deep, the other high and squeaky. Their voices give flavor to her coffee. One voice is cream, the other sugar. For the rest of the day, whenever she licks her lips, she will taste their full-bodied sweetness at the back of her throat. </font></p> <p><font face="Georgia" size="2">Having lips, she thinks, is like owning a plantation. You fertilize the earth. You grow crops. With the pointed tip of your tongue, you can till the soil, spinning flavors forward and backward across the terrain. Keep licking. Keep tasting the budding nerves all along the edge. Go on and slide your lips together letting the day's textured flavors swish inside your mouth. </font></p> <p><font face="Georgia" size="2">You will have reaped a harvest.</font></td> </tr> </table> </font></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="CENTER"><b><font face="Georgia" size="5"><img src="graphics/onthedottedline.gif"></font></b></td> </tr> </table> </font></td> <td align="CENTER" valign="TOP" width="226">  </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="488"><font face="Georgia" size="2"><table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" width="474"> <tr> <td align="LEFT" width="8"><font face="Georgia" size="2" color="#CCCCCC">..</font></td> <td align="CENTER">  </td> </tr> </table> </font></td> <td align="CENTER" width="226"></td> </tr> </table> </p> </body>