Tonight

Part A:

I felt...normal. Curvy women in flowy dresses. Yes. Curves. Undulating waves, beginning at the top, closing in the middle and exploding at the bottom. Extra stands proudly. It is the subject. It is the initiator. It is the norm tonight.
Huge circular wooden earings. And colors. Yes-colors. Curly hair let loose. Africa. In my hips.

Shame. At the North Shore. Next to skinny frames. Where curves are on the fringes? Or my perception is skewed?

But I'm normal tonight. With certainty. Unquestioned. Looking like you, beautiful you. And basking in an air of wordless affirmation.

Part B:

Spanish. I'm overly excited. Hearing tongues utter erres, saying "vale" and "disque." A collage, really. A collage of Latin American accents, helping me travel to Venezuela and Spain in the course of a phrase. And these erres and eses and a e i o u pronounced ah eh ee...takes me to contemporary Latin America, providing me with updates. "What happened since I left?"
Answer: erres, eses y a e i o u. Spanish sounds.

Part C:

Excitement. They're loud. We're loud. And overly excited. Our faces transform. The volume in their voice increases, repeating the same thing: "Que increíble. Que bello." As if I didn't hear them the first time--As if everybody didn't hear them the first time. But you can tell words are insufficient and cannot adequately convey nostalgia and pride and feeling home, and heck....just feeling good and impressed about a good performance. And he was a Dominican performer--so of course it was extra special.