Ashley M. Jones
spin•ster
noun \’spin(t)- stər\
1. a woman whose occupation is to spin
I am caught in a revolving door. This is unlike the princess at the wheel, waiting for Rumplestilskin’s tinny
laugh and pecking eyes. These days just keep seeping out of the calendar’s mouth like phlegm. I have not
felt the bristle of moustache hair in years. I would spin it into the finest cloth.
2. archaic : an unmarried woman of gentle family
My mother got married when she was twenty-seven. I am twenty-two. She met my father in college—that’s
how it’s done. That’s when nice young boys and nice young girls converge. In Alabama, the least you can
do is meet a nice co-ed when you’re swimming knee-deep in them. In Alabama, marriage is the next step
high school, college, marriage. Then career. If career. Then kids. Always kids.
3. a woman who seems unlikely to marry
When I was ten, I chose the boy with the unibrow who wore a pleather jacket in the springtime. I didn’t
wear lip gloss because it felt like vap-o-rub. I didn’t wear skirts because my legs were too skinny. He
walked with me, let his arm touch mine, let his eyebrow ripple with intrigue when I walked his way. This
was it.
But no boy likes to be put in a corner. No boy likes to be owned.
He said he hated me and took another girl to the dance the next week. I chose the wrong door. Instead of
stepping through to the other side, I revolve forever.