Headshot

by Rita Bullwinkel

Nobody can ever possibly know what a specific body is good at unless they’re inside it.

It can be intoxicating to play a sport that requires one to look in their opponent’s eyes.

Tanya Maw has a stray speck of black outside the center of her left eye. It’s like a small piece of her pupil broke off and is orbiting a black moon.

As Rose Mueller moves on Tanya Maw, to the right and then to the left, and to the left again, she sees her own legs morphing into flowers. Her arms become a tangled web of thorny rose vines, and at the end of her arm, where Rose Mueller’s glove used to be, there is a pink bouquet. The bunch of flowers smashes into Tanya Maw’s face.

Rose Mueller loves every girl who agrees to fight against her because they have agreed to be with her without needing to speak to her.