Cream Soda
there's a little girl in my hometown
who picks the can of pink pop from the fridge
when she and her mother visit the convenience
store cornered on First Ave.
they don't have a ton of money
or time to be with each other
and on days like this when afternoons kneel
like rooms without running lights
it's as if I can hear and see her near, the girl
wheezing and watching her breath cloud a window
making little pictures to explain the pain she bets I have
the courage to overcome
that girl is where I come from
she's my truth, my youth and most precious gift
I owe that girl a can of cream soda
Poems in Passage
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TTC • Aga Khan Museum • Pattison
Design and layout by Marissa Korda and Marta Ryczko
Picture of the Cream Soda poem taken on the Toronto subway in May, 2025.
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