no one drowned that week

we begged our father

to pull

over and get us ice cream.

he was driving

us to the beach in his 58

chevy impala.

all five kids,

and our mother in the front

seat reading

a photoplay

magazine,

smoking a cigarette,

and ignoring us.

finally he stopped and we all

got out.

being yelled at so as not

step onto

the highway

as cars sped by at ninety

miles an hour.

we each got a cone of

ice cream

then sat in the shade at a

picnic table

while my father went back

to the car

and had a conversation

with my mother who refused

to get out.

she lowered her sunglasses

and just stared at him.

i think she even

blew smoke rings into his face.

then one by one, we all

used the bathroom around back,

before getting into

the car

and moving on.

it was a long week at the beach,

but no one drowned.