1986
when I was in the fifth grade my
friend and I marched from my bedroom
out to the backyard where my parents were
gardening and calmly announced that we were going
to ride our bikes to the shopping plaza a mile or so away
my mother and father exchanged
a strangled look over the tops of our heads
then turned their faces towards us forced smiles
and said ok have fun girls and away we went hair flying
all afternoon most weekends for years thereafter we
slung our legs across bike seats rode down there
flung bikes with no locks on the rack by the
supermarket and wandered around
eating corn dogs and crinkle fries out of red plastic
baskets in
orange vinyl booths trying on oversized purple
cowl-neck
sweaters and tiny shrunken jean jackets and one time
transgressively prom dresses buying candy and tiny
ceramic animals and babysitters club books and
ninety-nine-cent bottles of wet-n-wild nail
polish in fuchsia and rainbow sparkle
image source is here
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