Little Woman Calls This Love by Kathleen Connolly

         Carolina Tarré CC


Little Woman Calls This Love.

 
Little Woman sits in bed knitting. Little Woman does exactly what she’s told. Little Woman never leaves the house, and she likes it that way. Little Woman’s husband is only 5’7 but when he hugs her he could crush her with only the weight of one thumb. They have been together for twenty years and he hasn’t squished her yet. Little Woman calls this love.
 
Little Woman’s husband’s name is John. Little Woman’s name is John’s wife. Little Woman cannot remember her birth name, she insists she never had one, she has always been John’s Wife.
 
Little Woman has a little girl. She has a birth name, for now, but everyone calls her Ugly Girl. Ugly Girl and Little Woman don’t get along. Ugly Girl takes women’s studies courses at university and calls little woman battered and brainwashed. Little Woman tells her she won’t understand until she finds a husband, which she won’t unless she puts the fork down.
 
Ugly Girl eats chocolate cake by the fistful. She is terrified of being small.

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Bio: Kathleen is an undergraduate student, teaching assistant, and lover of literature. 

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