COUNTERFACTUAL

Avery assembles 

Letter pieces over the scrabble 

Board; guests are over for 

Her eleventh birthday party—a jump rope themed party.

Some people wear ropes around their waists;

Others wear ropes as hefty necklaces.

The jumping rope challenge,

That’s for later, the fourth stage of Avery’s Birthday 

Party, followed by tree climbing—with ropes,

The fifth stage of Avery’s  Birthday Party, 

Where ropes would have been naively left hanging 

In the trees until Sunday’s rejuvenation 

After the Party had fallen to sleep.

Witnessed by neighbors—

neighbors migrating to a Baptist Church.

Ropes naively left hanging in the trees photographed 

by neighbors—migrating to the supermarket.

Ropes naively left hanging in the trees

The hullabaloo, the moldy icing 

Forever tainting Avery’s birthday. 

The hubbub, caked with naïveté? 

The brouhaha, a candle of light exposing ignorance?

The pandemonium, 

The implications of ideologies championing generational privilege?

From the frowning faces of neighbors—even Avery’s aging grandmother. 

Had Avery not implemented the scrabble stage—the first stage.

“Mommy, I have the letters I-G-G-E-R

I’m going to spell “SNIGGER.” 

Shooting the breeze with parents, Avery’s mother smiles

From afar as fifth and sixth graders assemble letters.

“Wait! I don’t have the letter “S” but I do have 

The letter “N” and I Googled the word

The word is pronounced—