The week I’m grounded,
time seems to still.
Silent, empty.
I mark time
by problems half-solved.
Paragraphs half-read.
Finally, winter break.
Chloe and I used to spend it having
double sleepovers at my house, playing Clue VCR,
eating cookie dough, shopping on Columbus.
This break,
me, Dylan, Chloe
spend lots of time
getting rocked:
smoking pot on the Big Rock,
listening to Phish at Dylan’s house,
the music taking us up,
we laugh so hard I can almost forget who I am.
Sometimes Chloe locks herself in the bathroom,
only lets me in,
I listen to her problems,
then ask her questions
about movies and music.
She says I’m the only one
who knows how to calm her down.
Chloe doesn’t know that helping her
with her problems
is the only way to forget my own.