Tourist Toddler in Grey From the Perspective Of Young Single Woman On Vacation In LA Who Doesn’t want to have a baby: She Won’t Have A Baby
LACMA, Los Angeles
The sidewalk is interrupted by a metal drain strip
– approximately seventy mm holes wide
A mom slows to a stop looking at her phone
While her toddler –
in all grey
with overdeveloped semimembranosus muscles
that jut in,
Like her narrow hips jut out –
Dips to touch the perforated metal stripping.
From here
I think she’s touched the metal from fingertip
To wrist
Palms flat and sliding across the metal
As this utility is meaningfully experiential,
Like the Rembrant or Picasso
was to her mother inside the building.
Mom slips her phone back in her pocket.
Toddler shoots her elbows back, racing
To the parking garage.