As Anyone Would

by Steve Mitchell

One day

as I made a sandwich

peanut butter and jelly

well

peanut butter and preserves

strawberry preserves

see

you spread the peanut butter

on one slice of bread

edge to edge

then you add preserves

to the same slice

and you blend the peanut butter

with the preserves

but not too much

and you put the second slice

onto the first slice

and well

that doesn’t matter

the thing is

as I made my sandwich

my peanut butter and preserves sandwich

I’d put the preserves lid

that metal lid with

the center which clicks

I’d put the lid on the counter

just so

and some dude

some crass dude

some dude

we’ll call him Shmave

walked right up and

without a word

he turned the lid over

just

turned it over

flipped it

he flipped it

he flipped my lid

he

flipped

my

lid

and when he did

when he flipped my lid

let

me

tell

you

I

was kind of irritated

——

© Steve Mitchell 2022