Bubble Gum Ice Cream

This is in memory of my Papa who died just about six years ago. Something happened to me the other night that urged me to write of him. please take into consideration that this poem may not have the best stanzas or the wording may not be very elaborate for I am writing it as if I was the 10 year old girl that I was six years ago.

please no flames.

IN LOVING MEMORY OF FRANCIS ROBINSON SR.

Bubble Gum Ice Cream

by Enelya Wood

the leaves blew

my younger brother romped about

acting out a cowboy scene in the yard

I just sat swinging

life was simple for only a few more seconds

the serine silence was broken by a sound

the sound of a siren

I had heard this sound so many times

I thought nothing of it

minutes passed and I became thirsty

when entering the house

that i saw chilled me to the bone

my nana, who was always laughing or smiling,

sat at the large kitchen table

sobbing uncontrolably

around her stood five offiers of the law

none of them noticed me

for this i was thankful

as if i had wings on my feet

i flew back into the yard

telling my brother of what i had witnessed

when we walked to the front of the house

shocked to find numerous

police cars and an ambluance.

to young to understand we fled

to the safty of the back yard

there things were simple, untouched

just as they had been ten minutes ago

suddenly, like an angel

my aunt appeared and scooped us up

taking us away from the tregety

that was unfolding before us.

the rest of the day seemed a blur

of ice cream and candy

anything cheerful

but that couldn't last forever

i knew that when i saw the car

with my mother in it pull up

my brother and i, still nieve

thinking that everthing was fine

and as it should be,

piled into the vechile

the ride was silent

until my mother spoke

this is a moment that has stuck with me forever

i was eating what was left of my ice cream dinner

it was bubblegum

my papa would always buy me bubble gum ice cream

she started off like anyother bad news would

she tried to explain it in terms

that we could understand

but all she need to say was..

"something happened to papa..."

then the I knew in that very moment

what had happened even thought

she hadn't said the words yet.

the thought I had been thinking all day was true

my papa had died

we pulled up to my grandparents house.

I wasn't hungry anymore.

I learned later that he had died

peacefully in his sleep

of heart failure

all those years of drinking

had finally caught up with him

its been six years

since that day in my grandparents back yard

that day haunts me even now

I write this today because

something happened to me today

I had a bowl of bubble gum ice cream

my first in six years.

fin.