Ode to the Dolphin Named Jacklin Farley Who Taught Me about Whip Its
She said she topped everything in whipped cream:
a mocha café, her personal recipe for a banana split,
Saturday morning chocolate chip pancakes, chai lattes—
the usual things—but then, she said “check this out!”
one night when we were out on the town with our friends,
walking between The Billy Goat and Pippin’s, and she
pulled out a couple of cans of Reddi Whip, held one can
white-tube up, and we all shared whip-its
on East Chicago Avenue, the June evening sun
splaying behind us a gorgeous glow. Jacklin—after her
final turn on the can, all of us laughing in voices
too highly pitched for our rushing minds—Jacklin gave us
her best dolphin impression, her clicking dolphin-laugh
echoing like a thousand wet ping-pongs across the brick
and concrete, the night opening before us like a bow,
Jacklin flopping and clapping in the air, a cetacean dancer,
a genius of joy on the last night anyone would see her.
a mocha café, her personal recipe for a banana split,
Saturday morning chocolate chip pancakes, chai lattes—
the usual things—but then, she said “check this out!”
one night when we were out on the town with our friends,
walking between The Billy Goat and Pippin’s, and she
pulled out a couple of cans of Reddi Whip, held one can
white-tube up, and we all shared whip-its
on East Chicago Avenue, the June evening sun
splaying behind us a gorgeous glow. Jacklin—after her
final turn on the can, all of us laughing in voices
too highly pitched for our rushing minds—Jacklin gave us
her best dolphin impression, her clicking dolphin-laugh
echoing like a thousand wet ping-pongs across the brick
and concrete, the night opening before us like a bow,
Jacklin flopping and clapping in the air, a cetacean dancer,
a genius of joy on the last night anyone would see her.
Pablo Peschiera’s poems have appeared in Pleiades, Shenandoah, Copper Nickel, and many other publications. He’s written and published lyrics for choral performance, and has published over one hundred poems, interviews, reviews, essays, and translations. He teaches creative writing at Hope College, where his focus is poetry and poetics, pedagogy, translation, and latinx poetry. He immigrated to the US from Peru at the age 4 years old with his parents. Today, Pablo lives just East of Saugatuck, Michigan.