Twelve Down the Street

Do you wanna go kill some ants?

Daren boiled a kettle

and loaded it into his Super Soaker

 

mm...let’s go ride bikes instead

unwilling to point out

that he had asked the same question yesterday

 

We could use bleach he suggested

as I remembered that

his mother had taught him to pee sitting down

 

and restricted his bike use to

only his driveway

unless he was with his parents or a friend

 

and he was often teased by other kids, or

even me, when people

were around to mirror my embarrassment

 

at his alien innocence;

Hypercolor sitcom

fenced yard and dental care gollys and goshes

 

He poured the scalding liquid on their hill

and laughed.