By: Terry Trowbridge

Brussels sprout sorbet
said the terrorist in the kitchen
taking the birthday boy’s
social life hostage
those chocolate cake eyes
focused on tomorrow’s eight flames
considering the limits

pick up his clothes then what
clean the cat box
vacuum the stairs
wash the car
but then he realised the limits of power
because once the first guest was to arrive
a birthday party is lit
with a chain reaction of events

In fact
he never saw brussels sprout sorbet at the store.
How long would it take to make?
An hour? Two?
He would be liberated by lunchtime

###

Terry Trowbridge’s poems have appeared in The New Quarterly, Carousel, subTerrain, paperplates, The Dalhousie Review, untethered, The Nashwaak Review, Orbis, Snakeskin Poetry, M58, CV2, Brittle Star, Bombfire, American Mathematical Monthly, The Academy of Heart and Mind, Canadian Woman Studies, The MathematicalIntelligencer, The Canadian Journal of Family and Youth, The Journal of HumanisticMathematics, The Beatnik Cowboy, Borderless, Literary Veganism, and more. His lit crit has appeared in Ariel, Hamilton Arts & Letters, Episteme, StudiesinSocialJustice, Rampike, and The/t3mz/Review.