the candy cane

once upon a time
i gave miles a candy cane.
it was root beer flavored.
but i'm already getting a head of myself.

once upon a time we had an old honda accord.
a 1991 to be exact.
with 278,000 miles on it.
i kid not.
and i went on a really long drive.
as in 2 hours.
(i realize this is a lot of numbers for you to take in right now)
and lucky us, the air conditioner broke.
and it was a week of record highs and like 98% humidity.
poor little miles was turning red and sweating up a storm.
so i stripped him of his clothing.
when we arrived in the town of rockport,
i bought a waterbottle and poured it on his sweating body.

now let's get back to the candy cane.
i gave miles a candy cane.
it was root beer flavored.
this was miles first encounter with sweets.
as you can see, he was happy as a clam.

but when he started drooling and getting a sticky mess all over the place,
i was not.
so i took it away.
miles was not very happy with me.
he screamed his head off.
so i gave it back to him.
and even as he sucked on it,
he continued to scream.
i guess my actions were just really hard to get over.
that is one ticked off kid.

(rockport, ma june 2010)