The Trick

 





This is what happened when your wife left you after 20 years:  I hate you, I
wish you were dead, I kept waiting for you to die, I wish I had never
married you, I really really don’t like you, I’m not sorry in case you think
I should be, I don’t care about your arm, So what? Come back here I said.
Maybe you should go to Emerg, She’s only a friend for god’s sake, Don’t you
think we should shake it up a little bit around here, have a modern
marriage? You’re even beautiful angry.  Other people are smarter than you
are; other people have educations and good jobs and good incomes.  I’m so
sorry, let me massage it.  Really, I am so glad to be with you. So so lucky,
You have many talents, You make me laugh, You’re so wise, Thank you, thank
you, thank you for loving me, I’m so sorry, I can’t believe I flew off the
handle again, I’m sorry I scared you, You ought to despise me, I love you, I
love you, I adore you, I love your mouth, I love you, I love you, I love how
smart you are, I love you, I love you, I love your children, I love you, I’m
so incredibly lucky to have found you, Oh god, fuck me, Please kiss me, You
have no idea how much I’d like to get to know you better, Hey you.

Jane Eaton Hamilton is the author of seven books of fiction and poetry.  Her book “July Nights” was shortlisted for the BC Book Prizes and “Hunger” was shortlisted for the Ferro Grumley Award.  “Body Rain,” her first book of poetry, was shortlisted for the Pat Lowther Award, and her chapbook, “Going Santa Fe,” won the League of Canadian Poets Poetry Chapbook Award.  She has been included in the Journey Prize Anthology, Best Canadian Short Stories, and has been cited in the Best American Short Stories. She has won many prizes for her short fiction, including, twice each, first prize in fiction in the CBC Literary Awards and the Prism International short fiction award. She has been published in the NY Times, Seventeen magazine, Salon, Numero Cinq, Macleans, the Globe and Mail, the Missouri Review, Ms blog, the Alaska Quarterly Review and many other places.  She has been a recipient of arts awards from the BC Arts Council and the Canada Council.  Jane is also a photographer and visual artist and was a litigant in Canada’s same-sex marriage case.  She has two grown daughters and lives in Vancouver.