Nutshell

Our friendship in a nutshell was this:

Once upon a time,

we stood over a plate

covered in peanut butter.

You held an overturned bowl,

poised above the plate,

and I held a broom,

ready to hit something,

and we waited on the mouse to come out from behind the stove.

You tried to talk me down

from crushing it with the broom.

I tried to talk you down

from grabbing the damn thing

with your own bare hands.

Your mom laughed at us across the room.

The mouse came out.

We both shrieked

and jumped away.

I smacked you with the broom by mistake,

you accidently hit me on the head with the bowl.

We ended up in a pile,

sprawled across our homework

and laughing too hard.

Our friendship in a nutshell was this:

You and I,

silly and happy,

never managing to catch that mouse.