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I'm Obsessed
With My Wife.

BY NICOLE STEINBERG

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 Her lips are a very dark pink.
 The homeless are especially nice to my wife. 
 She gives money to every beggar she sees, smiles at each God
 bless you, child
. She doesn't have to be naked
 to get a man's attention. All of Brooklyn
 loves her. I read

 the funny pages to her every morning, then read
 the rest of the paper myself. We hold our mugs with outstretched pinkies. 
 I saw an ad for the Miss Brooklyn
 beauty pageant last week and thought, My wife
 would be perfect for that! Still half-naked, 
 I ran to the phone and registered her. For God's

 sake, she said, blushing like a winsome goddess. 
 Her cheeks were as red
 as her naked
 pink
 ass after her "Bad Wife"
 spankings. (Sometimes nightlife is scarce in Brooklyn.) 

 I would never win Miss Brooklynite, 
 she said. Miss Brooklyn, I corrected her. Thank God
 for her low self-esteem; with minor cajoling, my wife
 agreed. After I read
 the sports section, we bought a pink
 dress. The fabric was flimsy; it made her look naked. 

 One contestant arrived naked
 from the waist up. Not unusual for Brooklyn, 
 though the pageant was held in Manhattan. My spouse pinked
 me in the arm with a fingernail, anxious. God
 forbid we do something I wanted to do. Read
 my lips, said my wife. 

 I want to leave, said my wife. 
 Please—we'll go home, you'll read
 and I'll lie naked
 on the couch. She cried as we crossed the Brooklyn
 Bridge, bawling ungodly
 noises. Her tears stained her dress a pretty dark pink. 

 Have I told you how I met my wife? Two years before Brooklyn; 
 I was halfway through Naked Lunch. She'd never heard of it. God, 
 I said, don't you read? No, she said. Her cheeks went pink. 

 

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