By Bonnie Lyons
"Think of the thrill,” I said trying to persuade
my two best friends to rob the Chase bank
on 41st Street we skipped past everyday
going to and from North Beach Elementary School.
“They don’t have our fingerprints yet and besides
we’re only nine. Even if we get caught, what can they do to us?”
I reasoned. We stole Clark bars, Hershey milk chocolate, and Milky Ways
from Ligget’s Drugstore instead and made ourselves sick eating the evidence.
I never gave up this crazy plan. I told my sister
that when I too became a grandmother we’d go for it.
Two old ladies with eight grandchildren between us!
“If we get caught, we’ll start a book group
for our sister prisoners. What’s so bad about that?”
She laughed at my absurd idea, of course, and then
it came to me: I cannot risk losing the thrill of holding
my grandson in my arms. I give up.
Bonnie Lyons is a professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She has published three books of poems as well as a chapbook, including one collection of poems written from the perspective of the women in the Bible.
Bonnie Lyons is a professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She has published three books of poems as well as a chapbook, including one collection of poems written from the perspective of the women in the Bible.
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