I made a real clay ring! Look Daddy, look!
But the traffic’s too much, Jesus and guns
and pet lover bumpers, most of them trucks
at forty an hour till the red light comes.
When I look back, my beaming young girl is
all absorbed in the work of becoming
but in my left ear, it’s Netanyahu
spinning dead Palestinian children.
We’re using, he says, missile defense
to protect our civilians and they’re using
their civilians to protect their missiles.
I try hard to smile at her Play-Doh ring.
The strumming builds from her favorite song,
Wonderful World, and the road ahead blurs.

***

RB Dickson lives in Arizona and has an MFA from Antioch University.