orecchiette

we're in the pasta aisle
trying to pick a shape
& i never take things like
this seriously so i go opening 
box after box & spilling them
on the dusty linoleum floor.
i pick up a farfalle (the bow-tie)
& press it to my neck &
say "look mom i'm a boy."
you shake your head & sigh
so i put the farfalle in your hair 
(because you're a girl). when we
were little (my brother & i)
we never had the patience for
spaghetti, we would pick up
the dry sticks & munch on them
like rabbits from the floor
of the kitchen until i grew 
up & learned how to make boxed
macaroni. the hallways in our
house (every house really)
are made out of macaroni.
i pick up some manicotti, which
can easily be used as sleeping
bags if we can't make up
our mind tonight & have to camp
out at the grocery store (it's open
24/7). i tuck you in 
& i ask where the star-dotted  
sleeping bag i used to have for 
sleepovers is hiding. in the attic? 
in a pot of red sauce? we left 
sauce on the stove at home,
silly thinking we'd only be gone
a few minutes. the thing i love most
about you is when we go to 
the grocery store & buy things 
that are over budget. we have a strict 
budget & wagon wheel pasta (rotelle) is not 
part of the budget, but we need it,
we need it to get home in 
the big old stubborn station wagon.
i roll rotelle down the aisle &
they tumble all the way out the auto-matic
doors of the market. we could 
use the screws in dad's workshop,
they're almost fusilli, corkscrews.
do you remember that spiral staircase
at the beach house we stay at when i was ten?
or was i thirteen? it all blends together?
i wore farfalle in my hair. i don't know
what i wanted to say about it
other than that we should make some
screw pasta to climb up to bed
at night. we confess that our bones
& our grandmothers bones & our great
great grandmother's bones are all
made of penne, stiff, al dente. 
we decide on orecchiette
tiny shells like the ones we would
collect on our nighttime beach walks. i always 
ate them uncooked alone in my room,
did you know that? you tell me
that orecchiette means "little ears"
& we make a pot of little ears to eat.
we love each other like little ears,
a sound bite & sound bite & chew,
are you listening? then what was i talking
about? the farfalle, yes the farfalle,
that's what i'm always talking
about. goodnight.