I Was Listening To You

by Kristen Sund

Talking
about your hard day at the office,
how your friend Madeline
got a promotion
but you didn’t
how your lunch
exploded in the microwave.

I was listening,
promise,
but couldn’t help being distracted
when driving up right next to us
was an old man with a Santa Claus beard
in his pickup truck
with a Got Deer? bumper sticker
and a shark stuffed animal
hanging from his rearview mirror.