5/11/12
Outside in the front yard the sprinklers
sprayed, and the girls with the long hair
in waves like divas
ran across the field,
green like the stretch of a mountain. The ice cream
came out in boxes and Jenni said No Thank You. The boy with the parakeet

and the closed, red mouth petted his silent parakeet,
watching from across the street. The sprinkler
made puddles, and Jenni said once again No Thank You to the ice cream.
The teenage girl next door divided the girls’ hair
into braids, while the rest were sprawled out on the field.
And Jenni’s baby sister fanned her pale skin, the self-named diva.

She looked with concern onto her sister, the little Diva
did, and the parakeet
stood on the boy’s shoulders. And the teenager lay in the sun on the field,
while neighborhood dads dared to make and avert nervous gazes. The sprinkler’s
cold jet kept coming, and the girls’ hair
was wet and smooth. But the forgotten ice cream

lay melting on the porch. The cool whites and pinks of ice cream
lay in a forgotten puddle. On young, skinny legs the diva
stood and glanced at the place Jenni had been, touching her fine hair.
Behind the caged glass, the parakeet
began to flap its wings, and a fretting mother worried about the sprinkler
and the drought that was coming. She glanced at the flooded field,

and noticed the brown, browner, browning field
becoming browner yet, mixing with the color of dripping ice-cream.
The fretting mother made her way towards the sprinkler
And across the grassy plane was the diva
Making her way towards Jenni. As the parakeet
Knocked its strong beak against the glass. And the girls’ with the braided hair

giggled. The teenager with her glistening body and shiny hair
moved her body in ways new and bold. The field
grew mushy, and the boy looked nervously at his anxious parakeet.
Jenni glowered at the melting ice cream,
and from afar her sister came towards her, the self-named Diva.
And the fretting mother passed by the girl on her journey to the sprinkler.

The sun was blurring the scene: melting ice-cream, screaming parakeet,
teenager with her long hair walking back home, and rushing across the field
was the self-named Diva, who saw the fretting mother yank the sprinkler off.