Argument With a Child

If you don’t do this thing you can’t
do the next thing and I know
you want to do the next thing.

How do I know?
I’ll tell you when I’m older.
Look at the flowers.

Can you say wisteria.
You don’t want to say wisteria.
You’d rather die is the look on your face.

How can I fix it if you won’t
let me look at it?
Look at something else while I touch it.

Plant your eyes on that place mat of the world
you love and don’t
move them until it stops hurting.

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This poem appears in the May 2023 print edition.