MIDNIGHT COKE FLOAT TIME MACHINE FORAY

I imagine a worm hole opening up in quantumy space

and we go through to an old timey drug store 

once, we knew

and saddle up on the twirlable red or green leatherette stools

and order a coke float, each, which is, if you sadly don't

know, IS

two grandiose golden scoops of vanilla ice cream and coca cola

syrup almost like a Sunday benediction

out of a silver spigot poured all over it in a tall fluted

glass so that there is so

much foam at the top it's miraculous

and its fizzy a LOT and so cooling

and later we will twirl the rack, my sister and I

of the lovely display of the classics, illustrated comics

especially the junior classics which are of every fairy tale

we have memorized so far with that fresh comic book smell

that crisping glossiness

like a baby road map of the heart

a road map of the heart

and this is a memory wrapped in a net of gold

you must hold it carefully not to spill all the peppermints

and try it yourself some midnight when you can't sleep

when you

are concentrating really really hard on the caramel fizz

of the past 

so hard that all kaleidoscopes bloom at once

and we glide backwards with our runcible spoons

through Time and all its Junes

extra moonlight coating the dewy night grass 

for the Coke Float special, fifteen cents or a mercury dime

and nothing seems more idyllic nee sublime

in this or any other fan cooled, lifetime, Heaven, anyway,

than this parlour of the Saturday whenever you chose

it, cafe of the infinite long past the matinees let out

parfaits.

mary angela douglas 5 october 2022;21 february 2023