I trace my finger along the logo’s curves
while rectangular banners of lilac and indigo rotate
across my screen.
We Are Here For You
Drive Up and Pick Up Your Faves
My Mom and Dad are not here for me
their need to see me only
in relation to them
stronger
than their interest in seeing me as I am.
My brothers, the faves, twist themselves, their marriages, their homes,
in search of approval —
our parents’ home, their drive-through.
Feed Your Fam
Get a Taco 12-Pack Delivered or at the Drive-Thru
My oldest children Zoom from their quarantines
my youngest with me only
four nights each week, shuttled between parents.
A 12-Pack of tacos would last me six straight meals
shuttered in my home at a table
for one.
Taco Bell Free Delivery
On Orders of $12+
My finances are battered
but I still have twelve dollars, plus.
My parents buy my brothers’ take-out.
I scroll through the website, considering
the Value Menu, the drive-thru,
and instead go to my kitchen to open
a can of beans,
in case.
Amy Freeman divides their time between freelance writing and serving as Development Director for The Writer’s Center in Bethesda, MD. Bylines and upcoming work in The Washington Post; Parents.com; HuffPost; Santa Fe Writer’s Project; X-R-A-Y Lit; Furious Gravity, Writers Resist, and Washington Writers Publishing House anthologies; Gargoyle Magazine and, and, and.
Taco Bell Quarterly 