Advice

by Wendy Taylor Carlisle

By a lake shaped like a cartoon parrot 
We practiced the simple art.

You were 17 and I was 19, two years 
between us and then I was twenty.

This is the simple math. 
It was Florida in the Sixties and

your aunt said, don’t grin honey, 
you don’t want to work your skin 
like that. She told me, one day 
you’ll be dead, but meanwhile put on 
some lipstick, wear a cute skirt.