In this adventure I have
five minutes to make you feel better
Here unwrap the paleta de fresa
Insert that song about roses, “…lean a little closer…”
     (it always makes me laugh)

Let’s open that novel to the good passage
When he brings that day old fish
He caught near Prospect Park
Wrapped in newspaper into
His high school friend’s
(he’s a CEO now) top floor
Windows instead of walls office
They played in that punk band together.

Of course, I won’t reheat the menudo.
Or turn on the television news.
Cars crashing into produce trucks
Make everyone sad. We could look
At pictures of small towns
On the border. The quiet streets

And local stores, the vendors smiling
As they hold up an orange, a bait shop even.
Chugging bass lines make me imagine
The world is slowing down. I know
That when you feel better you brush
Your teeth and hum.