My son is asking where his gun is and talking about needing to build his bomb, but it’s not what you think.
This episode of Batman has a gorilla villain who uses a gun and a bomb to turn humans into super-evolved gorillas like him.
So now my son carries around a plastic Fisher Price golf bag and calls it his e-ray, for evolution ray, and points it at us, KSHH.
My husband, Batman, gets his hand on the e-ray, changes the setting, and uses it to turn my son into a human. And he cries.
He’s acting, but it’s good, in that it’s sad. So my husband changes him back and he dances around the kitchen.
Later I’m crying in bed watching Cake Boss because Buddy recreated the top tier of his wedding cake for his wife on their anniversary and handmade all the sugar flowers, and she cared about that.
Not that I’m judging her. I’d like to be a woman delighted by cake. I’d like to be a woman who’s eaten a sugar flower.
Gum paste flower. Modeling chocolate flower. Buttercream flower. My mouth full of them. My husband’s mouth full of them. My son’s mouth full of them.
No—I’m hoping there’s a woman that’s at ease somewhere. So at ease in her life.
from Poetry Northwest 11.1 Summer & Fall 2016More by Sarah Blake from the library
Copyright © Sarah Blake
Used with the permission of the author
on behalf of Poetry Northwest.