Thursday, November 20, 2008: On the Street…Seen in Milan

Tropical Trends

A store that sold incense and green-glazed
ceramic turtles and leaves to hold it
while it burned

Silver rings and bangles, burnished,
Made to look old and set with
Turquoise or amethyst

Clothing made from hemp or burlap,
Rough and weird in my
Eleven year old eyes

That year, on my birthday, one of my friends
Bought me a gift from Tropical Trends:
Mexican jumping beans

And a pouch with a miniature family inside
Worry Dolls, with garb of thread
And black sand for hair

The jumping beans were scary, clicking inside the package
While we ate cake in the dining room
I almost flushed them

Down the toilet, but thought I might create
A new breed of sewer moth,
Giant, mutant, dangerous

I know the beans only jumped because the worm
Inside wanted to get out
And they deserved better

Than the sewage system, so my dad and I
Poured them in a bowl
Beneath a lamp

Our makeshift incubator seemed to be working
The beans clinked appreciatively
Ice cubes in a glass

But one day they all stopped moving
And laid there like pebbles
Or normal beans

I can’t remember what we did with them
Maybe the trash, in a paper towel
Or buried like seeds