Jenny Hanning
“Lines”
from Caketrain Issue 06

It seemed in the planning the kind of thing that we would want. Then, in its action we were—unsatisfied. A shock to us. The wanting promises so much and then, of course, of course delivers so little. Desire has a lot to answer for. Actors playing characters we loved as real told us that the wanting is so much greater than the having, but didn’t show to us hardly enough sorrow when they were given just their way. We thought the truth was a pretty line. We said to all of us, You shall find the wanting is often greater than the having. But what did it mean? Nothing—it meant nothing—but that we watched television with chest split open so our heart might listen for the lines that would give us shape and meaning.
     Our father was a wanter, but never had, so we cannot say if he would have found himself broken by the disappointment of a goal achieved. We would agree among us that he would not have ever known. His wanting was like Poe’s vaginas, gaping, an eater of ships, a thing so great that if we gave him everything (And we did. We gave him us. We gave all we had. We are a clutch of Miss Saigons.) he would still believe he had nothing.
     What can we do with a man like that, but break ourselves over him—waves to the shore.
     Maybe it’s the moon who has a lot to answer for.

Caketrain is a literary journal and press based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Our interest is in bringing you, reader, the very best in contemporary creative writing, full stop. Our goals are for each issue of our journal to submerge you in a birthing tank for gelatinous language monsters, young masses of tentacular foci undulating as directed (in all, at once) by our eclectic stable of contributors; for each new book we publish to seduce and ensnare you, sometimes intangibly, always undeniably; and for you, reader, to be able to draw at least one passage from our banks that prods your mind with such precision and power that it feels as if it was written for your eyes alone. To wit and to whet, here is a snippet, a slight nip of our delicious lit mix:

Copyright 2003-2006 Caketrain Journal and Press. Rights to literature revert to their respective authors.
ISSN 1547-6839.

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