When We Turned Blue

When we turned blue
Mom still didn't buy us
The puppy

We sat on the kitchen floor
And held our breath
Until it scurried out of our arms
And landed heaving on the linoleum

'Don't you care that we were going TO DIE?' we ask Mom

But she keeps making bacon
And sayin'

'No puppy'

When we turned blue again
We managed to stay blue
By letting out little gasps of air
And then sucking them back in again

Soon this became a game
And we forgot we weren't supposed to be playing a game
We were supposed to be
Having a breath strike

Mom stepped over us
As we clutched our necks
Begging to be relieved
From this torture

All she had to do was say 'Okay'
And we would be free
To breathe again
The sweet kitchen air
Filled with the smell
Of cooking bacon

But instead she set the plates down
Next to our suffocating bodies
And went upstairs
To make our beds

What a tyrant, she is, we thought

What a cruel, cruel woman

When we turned blue the third time
We actually did pass out
But it wasn't from turning blue
It was from heat exhaustion

The air was off
And the windows were closed
And the heat of the kitchen
Mixed with the sterile texture
Of the linoleum
Sent us into a blue nap

During the nap
We went to a blue landscape
Where there were blue puppies everywhere
Just like the one we wanted

Each of us got one
And we played in the blue fields
And lived in blue houses
And had great big blue picnics

But then the time came
To clean up the blue dog poo
And take the blue dogs for walks
Early in the light blue morning
When we'd much rather be sleeping

And finally the blue dogs
Chewed up all of our blew video games
And that was the final straw

We awoke to find our mother
Waiting for us at the kitchen table
Our bacon waiting patiently
To be eaten

We assumed our seats at the table
And began to eat our breakfast

'Still want that puppy,' she asked

And we quietly shook our heads
And waited for other colors
To return