Ice Cream Series #2 at Washington Square, Pastel, by John Cummings
And when I put this on my head, it’s like another lady walking with a different name
you said as your four years lengthened
and wet birds changed
their perches
their trees
their names were not the same
when everything you were
stepped out tall in streams
your soprano fully liquid
up in leaves where my umbrella
bobbed and twirled around that other
lady’s flyaways
and lightened nest
while iambs glossed and pattered
inside something swayed
to cradle
soothe
and bate my breath
now that you’ve gone
clippy-cloppy with
your new I am.
_____________
Muriel Nelson