MY KIND OF WOMAN

A young mother
holding colored balloons
in one hand
& two skateboards
with the other,
came out of her apartment building
with two screaming toddlers
tugging on her shorts. It was hot
here in NYC.
And she was quite upset.
One blond haired daughter
grabbed a board
from a fist
& skated away: "wee wee wee."
The other,
the more petulant
& whiny
& pretty
of the two,
pouted, & didn't want
to go nowhere
except back up
into her mother's arms.
NO, her mother said.
SCREAMS issued forth.
NO, she said again.
The little darling
stamped her little foot.
Do what you want,
the mother spat.
The kid kept tugging
& wrapped herself
around mom's thighs.
Follow your sister,
mom exhorted.
The pretty, blond haired, colored ribboned curled coiffed kid
began slapping
at any part of mom's torso she could get to.

I lit a cigarette.
Lovely,
I said
to myself.
I'll probably
be dating her in twenty years--
maybe sooner.

Norman Savage
Greenwich Village, 2015