“Cream
By Britta B.

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.