Looley Wants to See his Nose

Not in the mirror. Not in between his uncle’s years-ago fingers. Not running all over town like Gogol. Just something he could hold in his hands for once in his life.

He tried last month to see his heart. After so many years, he wanted to see the actual scars on it, the ones that were put there by bad love and poor choices. Looley slipped a rusty Gillette down his hairy chest but couldn’t make it through. Besides, Louise was making pork chops for dinner.

Looley wants to see his nose because frankly, he doesn’t trust the mirror anymore. How it has sunk him sudden into an old man. These days all the mirror shows him is a tinsel of whiskers and a nose that has grown longer, wider.

Looley can’t help but wince when he sees this. Is it possible for a nose to grow this much in the few short years since childhood? Louise’s nose has also grown, but he understands because his wife is an old lady. He appreciates her wisdom when she says, “You don’t want to have your five-year-old nose your whole life, do you?”

But he needs to see the nose for himself, and this is the morning he is going to do it. He will look into that liar of a mirror. Maybe, I will let the razor slip. Maybe, I will hold my nose in my own hand. Maybe I will not worry anymore about my own death coming for me.