Give me a band aid please! He said.
He is three and loves them.
Star Wars band aids, Darth Vader band aids,
Roblox band aids, Power Ranger band aids,
Barbie band aids, puppy band aids.
He is wearing six of them on his legs already.
I give him a box and he adds to his collection.
Pleased to be entertained.
Mommy does not let me do this! He informs me haughtily.
Mommies can’t, grandma’s can, I reply.
a glowing arrow on the floor
like a chunk of uranium an inch off the ground
or at least how i imagine uranium would look.
i wouldn’t know.
I bathe in the arrow's green glow
its dim light guiding the way forward
not like forward was very far.
further out on this island.
the arrow points from a tunnel
into a twisted road littered with cargo trains
that have broken apart over the years
broken pieces, broken parts
blindly strewn across the dark.
surrounded by a dark orange glow
the only sky this place has known.
a pond of stagnant water
as if a brush of cerulean paint skimmed over the ground.
it’s only me on this miniscule landscape.
only an inch of hills
keeping me from leaping into the night.
(NOTE: There's something poignant about joining an empty game server. The place I'm describing is an empty Roblox server.)