[I made asparagus today for the first time in years, and it reminded me of this moment when my best friend and i were kids and her mom told us the secret to asparagus]
Sunday afternoon asparagus experiment
long green stalks with pinecone heads
on my plate
send me back.
me and maddie, the girl around the corner
best friends since birth
eating lunch with her mother,
purveyor of fart jokes and bodily wisdom
from all her years as a floater nurse.
we wouldn't touch the green stringy things
no way, they looked gross, no
we wanted candy.
not until she told us
The Secret.
"The funny thing about asparagus," Julia said,
"is that if you eat enough of it,
you pee green!"
She giggled as we turned to each other
eyes wide as our still-full plates
sucking in a breath for a beat before
diving into the icky greens before us,
all thoughts of sugary goodness banished
and in our infinite wisdom and knowledge
of the human digestive system,
we ran straight to the bathrooms
once we greedily slurped down our last conquered string
to watch the magic happen
after a few minutes,
we met back in the living room,
frowns as droopy as the twizzlers we'd been tricked out of eating
Julia laughed from her perch on the kitchen counter and told us
like any good magic,
this one comes
with waiting.
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