[The waitress at Sonic]

The waitress at Sonic
is sixteen and full of life
and laughs when I ask
if I can leave a tip

and if I were her age
I would eat cheeseburgers
and drink milkshakes
all summer long.

I would tip her when I could,
and try to capture her joy
like a firefly in a jar
on a soft summer night 

back home,
when I was still a boy. 

This poem doesn’t need a whole lot of explanation; agreed? It is the second poem in a three-poem suite which has evolved after several trips to Arkansas in recent years. The Sonic with the 16-year-old waitress was in Piggott, Arkansas, where I attended a writing workshop during the summer of 2021. I didn’t have a photo exactly on-point, but I do think this photo says “summer.” The gazing ball was made by Annie Anglim, my sister-in-law and the Founder/Managing Director of Cause and Affect Gallery in Fenton, Michigan.

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A New Poem Every Monday
(tho’ sometimes life gets in the way)

Joseph Neely, all rights to original material reserved