mother said, you can drink my milk,
but don’t eat my cookies; then she came
and gave him milk and the boy drank but when
he put the warm bowl to his mouth,
she slapped it out of his hand &
yelled, I told you not to eat my cookies!
and the boy began to cry & feeling
bad his mother turned to let him lick
the bowl and lick the sink clean and then gave him her tangy tango to drink like lemonade
and chocolate chips, sometimes it was
more like sweet sherbet; but she never
hit him again and he’s been eating her cookies
ever since; now, his wife lets him drink
her milk and he drinks it from the baby’s bottle