Vanilla

Jennifer Paige©1998

He scoffed at my vanilla ice cream

            “How soap and water,” he said

                        Like my face

                        Plain

                        And creamy white

In spite of the canopy of leaves

            Diffusing the streetlights’ blue glare

He never touched my hair

            Yet I severed a lock for him

He never touched my hand

            Yet I would cut it off at the wrist for him

And from the bench across

            I watched him tease her

            With his chocolate ice cream

                        (the color of the skin on her nose)

            He sucked it off—

My cone shattered on impact

            And the vanilla took on the sidewalk

            Fiercely,

            But it lost

His eyes found mine more than twice

            Yet I cannot remember his gaze

These fingers touched his skin eternities

            Yet his warmth eludes me still

And beneath the leafy boughs of another

            Street lamp

His lips found mine

            Once

Before he was gone

            But that too is lost

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