Monday, July 28, 2014

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.

                                                                       

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