Tanked Princesses 

I found mini princesses emoting wildly at the bottom of a fish tank one night at a Thai restaurant. The long wait for dinner made me squirmy as a kid, so I walked over to the aquarium to study it. Noticing the lady’s hands and lips and faces, I thought I’ve never seen this expression before. So gummy and faux female. But the longer I stared, the more they began reminding me of the way drunk folks in high school could look, all loaded up on goof and melodrama with dubious muscle control. Once I saw them as tanked, drunk, and trapped underwater wearing dresses, I didn’t hate the impossibly thin-waisted fairytale figurines. I felt humored by them and pinched by pity too. 

Nashville, TN