poem of the day 07.28.14

mint chocolate chip

the two girls sitting near me

have a loud one-act going on

about how much they love ice cream

ooooooooh, vanilla one of them shouts

oooooooooh, chocolate, the other counters piercingly

before this they’d spent fifteen minutes

shouting back and forth about the apps on their phones

and how much they love doritos

but hate the bright orange powder that gets stuck on their fingers

this is sadly an improvement

i loooovvvveee, strawberry, one of them says

ewwwwwwwwwwwww, the other responds

strawberry is soooooooo gross.

they are giving credence to the old adage

that children should be seen and not heard

they make year-round school seem like the right choice

i stop reading my book and look around

but there is nowhere for me to go

i’m stuck and they are stuck and we are stuck

talking about ice cream in the middle of the afternoon

butter pecan, my mother loves butter pecan

yeah, well, my sister loves cookie dough and coffee flavored

she says it like a challenge

mint chocolate chip! the one girl shouts

they both squeal

we’ve hit the motherload in this conversation

the apex, the big payoff in centuries of verbal communication

mint chocolate chip!

they both scream this time

it’s like a revelation

like being in a room with copernicus

when he figured out that everything

revolved around the sun

i can’t help but laugh

i look over at the two girls and they are beaming

they look as happy as children with tons of hours to kill

and not an ounce of responsibility in this world

kicking legs too small to reach the concrete

their lives full of ice cream dreams and soda pop ambition

christ, may the world

never force them to change, i think

then i go back to my book

and turn another page.