I travel around in time.
I can stop parties.
I can stop everyone from getting drunk
all the time.

I’m so powerful. I say, no, tomorrow
is my birthday. I don’t want to wake up
in a sea of cigarettes and ashtrays.
I take the car keys.
If they drink they can not drive.
I keep the babies with me.
Not in this room, I say, and turn the lights out.

They have a parade outside my windows,
beer, ice, all that stuff, cymbals and drums.
I am alone and free. No, I’m wonderful.
They love me. I can keep them safe.
I can keep them from blowing up the world,
or the school cafeteria.

© 1986 by Ellen Gilchrist; Reprinted by permission of Ellen Gilchrist and Don Congdon Associates, Inc.