two kids on a park bench

for Stacy :)

Knee socks and pigtailed hair and candy
colored lipgloss;
two girls on a park bench,
watching life go by.

One sees the mothers and their men,
the hot dog vendor across the way,
and the boys as they refuse to
walk, but rather tumble and roughouse
through the greenspace.

She sees the heights of all the flowers
and the lengths of all the trees. She sees
the smallness of the blades of grass and
the ladybug on her shoe.
There is nothing she sees that
she doesn't also like.

The second girl casts her eyes over
the ladybug and the flowers; she looks at the
tallness of the men and the smallness
of the coins being passed to the hotdog vendor
across the way. Her eyes roll
at the sight of the tumbling boys and
all their nature given grabs for
attention.

Her eyes then fall to her shoes,
where that tiny ladybug has since
taken up residence.
She takes a slurp of ice cream off
a dripping ice cream cone,
and pushes the hair from her
eyes.

"You are getting too comfortable,"
she says to the lady in red.
One finger flick,
one swift kick,
and her tiny little visitor is dead.

Girl one looks at girl two and sighs
dramatically. She props her ice cream
on the bench and kneels oh so
gently beside the smallness
of what once was a tiny red companion.

She sees the girl beside her and the
death beside her hand.
There is nothing she sees that she doesn't
also like. Except, of course,
dead ladybugs
and cold pretentious friends.