Mo’ Mots

You don’t know Francois like I do. Many of you would see the arrogant Frenchman, smoking away on his slender and finer imported cigarettes (still made with Virginia tobacco, mind you) and talking smack every minute about the Americans de merde. That’s not Francois.

When I met Francois, he looked like the most miserable, most pitiable creature on the planet. He was clinging to the pool’s wall, his scraggly, mousy brown hair plastered to his hollowed-out cheeks, strands dripping with an almost sad commonness. You wouldn’t even have noticed him, but I did because I was also at the same moment resting in my lane, fiddling with my goggles, and suffering from the escape attempt of my contact lenses. I think he thought I kept winking at him, but really I was just trying to squeeze chlorinated and urinated pool water from my eyeball. So much for the goggles.

I am the Empress of ice cream. I stand
between you and your ice cream. I determine
the shape, the size, and even if
I’ll get your request right. Back in the kitchen,
they’re whipping concupiscent curds, but here
I hold my scepter of scoops. There
is no funeral here–
only a funeral for tears.

I want to tell the child with hot tears
coating beet cheeks:
“There is no crying in an ice cream shop.”
The child screams, “I WANT ICE CREAM”
and then cries some more to see that
rainbow sherbet is not a flavor
that exists within nature. How audacious is that,
to want to taste a rainbow?
Try a bag of Skittles.
The child tries again.
Here is a magical place
where colors become flavors:
“I want the pink one!”
a sticky finger points. A young parent reminds
a young child to say “please” and “thank you.”
The old parent neglects to do so.
“Give me a chocolate cone.”

Hush, my children,
for you will taste an empire
of colors. But hold back
your tongue, and not all at once.
I will show you the dipping case
for your palate, from chartreuse to rose to candied orange.
And yes, you will have to pay for the property
of taste. Here, though, there is no tax,
just the taxing
choice of black
pepper or
white
coffee.