Track 6: Game Designer by Arlene Tribbia

Once John & Paul 

start talking about

snowflakes, sitting on corn flakes, watching deep fakes

I fall asleep.

The children in the 

classroom start cutting out 

their red hearts made from construction

paper. Snow flakes hang

on the windows.

The teacher has fallen 

asleep at her desk after eating  

a bowl of cornflakes, 

warm milk & peaches for lunch.

Everyone is quiet. 

Well, we try our best to be quiet 

& try not to laugh

before the last bell rings. 

Soon it’ll be time for us to leave behind our musical chairs 

our yellow pencils & all our secret blue line notes

to follow Love, the last lost dog’s footprints 

home through the summer snows. 

We walk & practice our sidewalk sliding

sticking out our tongues to catch 

the 

falling

snow

flakes

keep 

falling

& 

falling   

melting & tasting like left over summer clouds  

the big ones, that always looked so fake when they were drifting over Wolf Lake.

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Arlene Tribbia is a writer and artist who grew up in Chicago. She writes poetry and fiction and makes portraits about otherworldly beings because she’s fond of discovering characters who work to solve the larger cosmic riddles of the universe. Stories of hers have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and published widely as well as internationally. 
Website: http://arlenetribbia.com/wp/bio/