Tilt-a-Whirl
by Amye Barrese Archer

Who’d have guessed from the picture

That it had ended up

Okay.

My back against the smooth steel half-shell

tears streaming down my eight year old face

a smiling sob

formed the moment before I was captured,

frozen, for the world to see.

My father sitting next to me with his hands

cupped over his mustached mouth

hiding what a casual observer would say

was a laugh.

The guffaw he called a yawn.

 

AMYE BARRESE ARCHER is a graduate student working towards her MFA in Creative Writing at Wilkes University. She has written poetry, short stories, a novel that will never be finished, and many truths on bathroom walls. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Twins Magazine, The Short Humour Site, The Ampersand Review, The Battered Suitcase, and Oak Bend Review. Her chapbook, No One Ever Looks Up, was published by Pudding House Press in 2007. Amye has two-year-old twin daughters and shares her life with her husband, Tim. You can see samples of her work and read her blog at amyearcher.com.

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