the field trip

we skipped

school and took the A-1

Archives bus,

D.C.

Transit to ninth street

northwest.

we were

maybe twelve

or thirteen years old

a few dollars

in our pockets,

most in change.

we played pinballs

for awhile,

nickel games.

and was shooed away

when we

wandered into the back

where the peep

machines were,

viewers we could hardly

reach

holding shadowy pictures

of nude women

playing volleyball

in Sweden.

then we went

to the National 

Art Museum, then to

the Botanical Gardens,

then over
to the Supreme Court,

taking the subway

to the Senate dining room

where we had

bean soup.

from there, we sat in

the bleachers watching

the senate

in session,

then off to lunch on

14th, where we ate

hamburgers at a counter.

it was getting dark

about then,

so we went home.

still carrying our books

beneath our arms.