I was that four-year-
old boy smiling, thumb
aimed at the sky like I was
molding the atmosphere’s clouds
with Minnie Mouse
and my eyelashes, tangled as ever,
winked at each other.
Dimples singed into cheeks
like the atmosphere-clay
after I’d jammed my innocent
thumbprint into it.
And I can’t hold back a laugh.
Blood like fiery yarn
spun into rivers
up and down my coarse
veins until it has nowhere
to trickle except for under those
tacky, plastic Venetian love boats
at Disney World—it’s a small world
after all.
Peter LaBerge is currently a sixteen-year-old high school student. His writing is featured or forthcoming in: Indigo Rising Magazine; The Camel Saloon; Down in the Dirt Magazine; Children, Churches, and Daddies Magazine; and more. He is also a photographer, with photography featured or forthcoming in: This Great Society; and Children, Churches, and Daddies Magazine. His flash fiction piece, ‘The Ansonia Girl’, was featured in the January 2010 issue of Burning Word. He is the founder and chief editor of The Adroit Journal.
