Kathi Morrison-Taylor
BOMB POP
In downtown Washington
just blocks from the White House
you can still buy a Bomb Pop –
its red, white, and blue
warhead portrait displayed
on the Good Humor cart
next to Fudgsicles and Sundae Cones;
its novelty rocket of cherry,
lemon and raspberry
a bestseller in this no-fly zone.
Last Friday, a bomb threat
cleared the monuments,
closed Constitution
and Independence for hours.
Trapped on the mall, a tourist dad
stopped to cool off with a Bomb Pop,
licked those memories –
Cold War, fallout shelters,
brain freeze – basking
in Homeland Security.
Forgive me, but I suspect
someone’s filming me
as I ask for one,
as I’m pointing,
as the vendor’s reaching
into his silo.
Kathi Morrison-Taylor's work has
appeared in Seattle Review, New York Quarterly,
and Southern Poetry Review, among others. Last summer her
poem "Hermit Crab" won the Moving Words competition and
was displayed on Metro buses throughout Northern VA. She teaches middle
school English in Washington, DC.
Published in
Volume 7, Number 3, Summer 2006.
To read more by this author:
Morrison-Taylor
on Joaquin
Miller: Forebears Issue
Kathi
Morrison-Taylor