What Are Friends For?

Oh, it was dumb
but it was fun
to ask your bespectacled best friend
the same old question
again
and again.
“Do you want some gum?”
Your friend is appreciative and delighted to no end.
Because in the midst
of your oh-so-serious
seven year old cares--
like ensuring that chocolate stained popsicle sticks
don’t fall out of your spokes
Or that the crumb-coated nickels you fished out
from beneath the bum-dented cushions
of your dad’s favourite chair
will be enough to buy you Cokes--
you still have time to be attentive to her welfare.
And you’re philanthropic enough to share
a juicy stick of Juicy Fruit—or better yet—a ginormous and squishy square of Hubba Bubba.
Painfully unaware, achingly innocent, and indecently earnest, she proclaims:
“Yes, please!”
And smiles
gap-toothed, eyes expectant and grateful behind smudged pop bottle lenses.
And with not one iota of shame
you lay it on her
once again.
“You want gum? Chew your rubber bum!”
You giggle hysterically till Coke shoots through your nose,
Bringing stinging tears of pain and unapologetic glee to your eyes.
Life is dumb and fun
When you’re seven years old.
And while years pass as fast as blue freezies melt in your pocket
The joke is still funny
today.

© 2007 Jan Mann