Word of the Day Challenge: Paradisiac

Jolyn Tallman lives on a street

where all of the houses look freshly painted

and all of the women bob their hair

and wear jewelry they bought on their last vacation

to Mexico or L.A. and

Labradoodles and cats sun themselves in their picture book  backyards.

 

The woman on Jolyn’s street belong to book clubs

and sniff their wine before they sip it

except for when they are alone

and no one is around to watch them

and applaud them for how cultured they are

with admiration beaming from their eyes.

 

Sometimes on Jolyn’s street

a visitor from another world stops by one of the houses

that always looks freshly painted

and the visitors all sit on the edge of their chairs,

with their hands clenched tightly in their laps

and smiles plastered on their faces until it’s time to leave

 

and when they leave

those visitors get into their cars

and roll the windows down

they turn the radio up

push their seats back  and in that moment

they find  Paradise in the suburbs.