Her eyes drift.

She’s read (just) enough Nabokov to know where this is all heading.

THE NEXT YOUNGEST DAUGHTER BY JR BARNER 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 114

The paneling in this place is either oak or hemlock

But she can’t tell the difference,

Tucked away

With downturned gaze & scoliosis slouch,

Illuminated only by her phone’s unflattering light.

Her parents dance some distance away

To some seventies R&B hit

Dashed out by the half-drunk college kid on the

Bösendorfer in the corner.

Her younger sister clamoring on about

Boogie-boarding that afternoon

With a petite blonde from Bowness-on-Windermere

While she tanned alone on the beach.

God, she wishes, half-out-loud,

To be that innocent again.