Khaos

Khaos- Miles Miller (Plato Alto High School 11th Grade) 

I’m entertaining my five-year-old sister, playing guessing games.

I read my poetry to her:

“The sky droops with thirst,

Yanks a bendy straw from nowhere,

Vacuum-slurps the clouds, rains, and someone’s mailbox.

The wind panic-spins, the sky gulps.”

“This is a…?”

“A tomato!” she declares.

I nod. Of course. The atmosphere’s favorite fruit. Pronunciation close to tornado.

I try again:

“Burnt stones cling to a cheesy plain.

Sauce volcanoes erupt dramatically, very rude of them.

Pepper trees melt while mushrooms cannonball

Into molten, sacred goo.”

“Yummm, this is a…?”

“TOMATO!” she announces, louder. Capital letters. Confidence of a TED Talk.

I collapse laughing. Breathless. Emotionally defeated. I thought she liked pizza!

She’s either messing with me or deeply devoted to tomatoes.

So I surrender. I create a tomato story just for her:

“Red, orange, yellow, or purple.

Looks like a vegetable but is a fruit,

Crucial to pizza, pasta, salad, or soup.

Basically holding civilization together.”

“My sister’s favorite word is…”

“POTATOOOOO!!!” she screams.

Checks out. That’s siblings for you.