The Girl in the Red Bathing Cap

The Girl in the Red Bathing Cap

and the matching red one piece

runs down the board and arches

into a perfect dive,

over and over on the neon sign

between the hotel and the restaurant.

Dad eats a half fried chicken,

Mama has a BLT and my brother

and I eat fancy hamburgers.

We can afford it because Daddy

is on a work trip making lots of money

life is good, even though hard times

are always only a couple of weeks away.

When life is good we forget the hard times,

the baked potatoes three nights per week

where Mama makes fried chicken

and only Daddy gets a piece of two

each night to keep his strength up

for his next job and we all crowd

into the bench of the old Dodge pickup

and ride 400 miles or so to where the work is now.

Today the hard times are a long ways away,

and I admire the arch while my older brother

admires the one piece,

and the hamburgers are good.