Phone ringing

Checks exchanged

Fingers on the keys

Plans always rearranged

Cries and pleas

Pills popped

Slip on shoes

Keep on pressing snooze

 

A long drive

Sun-scraped skies

Switch drivers at night; take five

A family trip

big size

Squinted eyes

Fall sleep in the back seat

The hills grow and rise

Crank the heat, we survived the sleet

 

Small hotel

Unpack

Smiles swell

Not looking back

 

Shoes of different sizes hit the pavement

Breathing out like tea ketttles

Our cheeks tinged with the air around us

Tinged with the blueness I could not see

but could feel

I walk closer to my little sister

Because it’s damn cold here

 

Hit the antique shop I could draw a map of

I remember the old Cokes that have never been opened

And the toys some Grandmother played with long ago

And the weird furniture of all different pastel hues

The creak of mahogany floors

The smell of dust and old women with glasses on

The feel of the old ass carpet under my sneakers

 

Hit the candy shop

With everything hung up on the walls

In little glass jars

More candy in the glass counters

I could pick anything

A pound of anything for cheap

I picked chocolate covered gummy bears because I could

I didn’t eat them all, but I really tried

 

Hit the Chinese restaurant right next door

with little green glass tables

And creaky chairs

Ordering Coca-Cola

Man it was the best

Right out of the fountain tap

Goddamn

I ate those noodles plentifully

And sucked that Coke through the straw

Until it was stuck in my mind as a memory

 

Hit the hotel

Goodnight

Hit the car

Gas up

Heading home

 

We still can’t escape the problems

and the pleas

and the phone calls

or even the exchanged checks from time to time

But we do our best

And eat dinner together every night

Even though we often fight

 

To me it’s really the thought that counts

And even when it’s not cold out

When my family members smile

All together, watching some old movie my mom loves

I catch the glint of blue in their eyes

And around their faces

 

I take the blueness

And adorn it on my skin as well