Sophie

I don't have a title for this one yet. When I first wrote it, I was pretty pleased with it but now that I'm re-reading/editing, I'm not sure how I feel about it. Comments/critiques appreciated.

Sophie cut two large zinnias
over the femoral vein of each thigh
with a razor when her neighbor
found her, walking in

to borrow a tablespoon of lemon juice

Her neighbor had to catch a plane to Austria
and the hospital let Sophie go
a few hours later after discovering
that she did not have health insurance

Sophie walked to the fresh market
across the street, bought
three eggplants and walked back
to her apartment

After cleaning the blood from the bathroom
Sophie went to the kitchen, peeled
one of the eggplants in stripes, cut it into cubes,
lightly salted it, and fried it in oil
for about twenty minutes

After she was done eating, she read
fifteen more pages of Diderot’sJacques le fataliste (in French)
and went to bed

The next morning,
she ate another eggplant for breakfast,
added some leaves and bumblebees
to the zinnias on her thighs
and took a bus to the hospital
after realizing that she still had
thirty-two pages of the novel to read

On the way back,
she stopped by the market again
to buy a pair of thick gardening gloves
and seven packets of seeds
(green peppers, strawberries, tomatoes,
sunflowers, squash, zinnias and eggplants)

Sophie planted the flowers
and the eggplants in the small garden
on her balcony and went inside
to make some raspberry lemonade,
sit in her mustard yellow armchair
and read the last thirty-two pages

P.S. I have a new hair cut. Here's a photo (click for full size):