It's Still Life

He

is fascinated by bird poo.
pigeon, magpie, and sheep “poopoo”,
and wants to poke it with a stick.

and that big long one on the pavement is
definitely dinosaur poop.

and then there’s sticks.
big sticks are better than cookies.

and he wants to know why
he can’t eat a spider.

She

says, why won’t the oyster give up its pearl?
because it’s shellfish, she says.

she laughs. and laugh.

there’s chocolate for breakfast
and she want to know if she has to like ants.

she says she’ll have cauliflower and crisps
for dinner. thank you.

They

she says there’s not room enough for them both
in the same car. suggests her little brother
be left behind at the outlet mall.

he and she want different flavours of ice cream, and

he and I have a secret language that involves
sticky fingers. It’s a spiderman thing.

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©Misky 2022 Shared with #amwriting on Twitter