Following from July’s imagined encounter with celebrity, Wood’s narrator here meets a handsome man, who might be Marcel Proust, on a train. The story is told through their conversation, a technique I love to both read and write. The sleepiness of their dialogue precipitates an indulgent, intimate tension. They talk about love and sex tenderly, humorously, but don’t ever touch. It’s an extremely sensual piece of writing, in which the narrator appears to check in with us about how delightful the moment is: “I didn’t know then and I haven’t learned since,” she says, “what to do with something unexpected and precious.” Pleasurable tension is elusive but addictive, Wood, like July, masters it perfectly here.
Collected in Yes Yes More More, Indigo Press, 2021
A Personal Anthology 