BYMATT PROCTOR / JANUARY 2020
POETRY
ICE CREAM
BY MATT PROCTOR
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.