just add one strawberry

as seen from kitchen table while
scrawling out a letter addressed to
brooklyn: one hawk swirl-circling high up
while two others careen closer
to the back yard tree tops
and what is remarkable is the way
the light burns through
their wings illuminating the spaces
between the edges of feathers
_______
if i were a super hero
my fatal flaw would be not
being able to walk on the ground
i joke while we skip across the street
referencing my hand-me-down spongeboots
(meaning: boots whose soles are the excact opposite
of impervious to water)
_______
we can walk to wisconsin ami says
in the blustery but sun-filled air
about crossing the st. croix river
via the stillwater bridge
on which we pause to take in the
hardened white thick glaze of ice
across the water’s surface
_______
perched on downed tree trunk
surrounded by leaf litter and bare branches
plus the river stretching out beyond all that
we laugh about mike barman the poleman at the option,
discuss the history of a first kiss after a dorm-room
showing of clockwork orange,
talk about the time i was on the dance floor
but couldn’t move or talk while someone
interrogated her on the staircase about knowing
who siousxie sioux (the person whose image
was on the shirt (mine, borrowed) she wore
etc.
_______
upon arriving home from school and discovering
the polk-a-dotted wrapping-papered surprise
left on the bench where he sets his coat/bag
I GOT A PRESENT!!!!! madix’s excited voice
slipping through the front door
just before he slams it shut
________
just add one strawberry i say
to make it pink ami responds and thus
is born the name of our cooking show
(a show in which we
make delicious food but spend half the time
in sibling arguments about little things
like the little power struggle of
me wanting to add a strawberry to the perfectly
textured cream cheese frosting and her saying
the moisture of just one strawberry will destroy
the frosting’s texture.
in this show, each episode will of course,
end in antics like tossing jam-filled cookies
to stick on teh ceiling or a fantastic
all out food fight)
_______
parade of small bowls lined up
on kitchen table:
lettuce leaves saluting us,
the thinnest slices of tomato slouching into each other,
half of an avocado cut into slice/cubes
awaiting our BLT assembly
_______
drip and sheen of
sweat on skin
as i emerge from
the sauna heat
where we just read splat the cat
before the shower before bed
_______
the moment ami is
sitting on the trampoline and i
am on the stool/chair at the table by the window
and we are talking in our
night-hush voices and both of us
begin to yawn
with the same pitch
at the same time
and we both look at each other like
nah-uh