loud children gather outside

the local ice cream shop

where you used to get heaping scoops of pink

ice cream covered in blankets of rainbow sprinkles

this scene is still visible

every night till 11pm in the summer

but it would seem to me that they are all traitors

the children and their tired parents

the ice cream scoopers and the nervous teenager

at the cash register

traitors all of them

to carry on with this sweet sugar soaked life

when you’re not here

we should have hit the collective pause button

when you drove away to virginia

or rather your departure should have caused the whole

system to collapse

freeze up

like a computer that needs to reboot

and yet

loud children

on bikes

ice cream cones

melting on sidewalks

me alone in the car wondering

if i’m going to brave the crowds

you in virginia