April 15, 2025

finance for beginners

In 1981, 50 cents could buy me a whole afternoon
and a bag of Ruffles. The walk from South Bath Avenue
to the Kroger’s, my mouth puckering with freedom.
A line of crows on a telephone wire—witnesses.
Sidewalk cracks, dares to keep my mother’s back
in one piece. I still rip the cellophane with my teeth,
eat the chips one at a time, let them soften
into tidepools on my tongue. Afternoons, still round
as coins. My mother’s back, still unbroken. 
The birds still keeping watch.