- My Best Friend and Me
At ten, too old for dolls, we hide them. The toy bin snaps like a sacred book'sbinding. While our parents sleep, we write ourselves gods, and the simple plot we began spins from us untilthe characters start to question the rules of their universe; they do terrible things; they horrifyand excite us until morning. And I wish I could end here, but the dolls are already changing faces,appearing in drawers. My mother's car doors are opening by themselves, and the house is cold, coldas the halls between biology and gym. We fail our classes. Someone yells lesbians; the word spitslike the fire pit where my stepfather burns dolls, poems, stories thick with dialogue. He callsthe exorcist, whose business card was given to him by Pentecostal ministers. These same men guide me through [End Page 75] a twelve-step recovery program for the possessed. I renounce yoga. My parents divorce and we move to another town. My little cousindies, but I dream it first.
Brandi George's work has recently appeared or is forthcoming in Cimarron Review, Gulf Coast, CutBank, Best New Poets 2010, and elsewhere. She currently resides in Tallahassee, Florida, where she teaches writing.