Track 17: How to Deal by Katie Kenney

A song comes on the radio

and suddenly you’re thirteen

Moons Over My Hammy

gushing over crushes slurpees

at the CineLux buttery swirled

rainbow carpet hugging

the glowing bowling

alley, bumpers up, our favorite

DCOM in your room lapping up Thin

Mints & Caramel deLites with

you. It’s July and the park

has fireworks tonight polyester

chairs finally folded open for 

the big show, love stories

at the library, fictional boys for

summer girls. Down the road,

the soft ocean, where we sleep

in shimmery beach houses shingled

in aquamarine and your eyes

have never looked so blue.

A song fades out on the radio to

remind you at thirty-three, maybe 

everything, everything'll be

alright, alright

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Katie Kenney is a recent graduate of University of Denver's Publishing Institute where she was the BINC and Sourcebooks scholarship recipient. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Western Washington University.  She lives in New England with her cat Mabel.