BYMATT PROCTOR /  JANUARY 2020

POETRY

​

                 ice cream

 ______

     dairy queen

25¢ vanilla scoop

on wafer cone

covered in

crushed peanuts

or rainbow

sprinkles 50¢

max & erma’s

bathtub build

a sundae on

my birthday

every year

of childhood

used to stop in to

mcdonald’s regularly

for soft serve

$1.50 snack treat

once a day to myself

no particular reason

turkish coffee

dad’s favorite

from udf

in a carton

as a kid

swirl of syrup

mixed w/

nutty caramel

or salty carmel

from jeni’s

where I worked

when I was 23

$6.75 an hr

the least I ever

got paid

scoopin samples

makin waffles

carpal tunnels

alongside 16

year old children

they exploited

drawering the tips

paying them

minimum wage

to grind pints

in their off

hours

bourbon butter

pecan   bananas

& honey   pear riesling

a pint a week

I ate

my weight

+ quit w/in

a month

sorry bill

poor overaged kid

in the hall lookin

manager/boss

worst job I

ever had

coming home

smelling like ice

cream

which is

frozen + doesn’t

                     smell

now I don’t

eat gluten or dairy

have cashew milk

chocolate chunk

soy or coconut

dulce de leche

+to be honest

I feel a 

lot better abt

the whole thing

in general

​

Matt Proctor is a writer from Columbus, Ohio. He lives in an art performance house called the Sloodge in Brooklyn, NY. More by Matt Proctor.