It's Still Life

I’ll Tell You the Value of …

that 2nd week of August; it was all life should be. All I wanted. Sitting there on a seawall, on a Monday, on a tide-swept step, algae-green, emerald-slick, still slippery from the retreating sea. And I’m a slow spoon into gelato. Never had a thrill quite like this before. Good god, who’ll put up bail and get me out of this sin. The value of sweet cream and purity, going from a childhood of iced milk and going deep into creamy velvet. Chocolate, as I recall. The next day was strawberry. And so on. I know a girl scared by her childhood. Mine was sweet.

When cold burns
You’ll remember
It wasn’t winter

written for Miz Quickly’s Day 25: “Value”