“Rock Lobster” Plays at the Plaid Party

by Jean Janicke

I remember a sea of clashing plaid

On the dimly lit basketball court.

Circled by chaperone nets,

a school of pre-teens descended

with the slide down a guitar string,

inched lower like sinking fishhooks.

Down, down, down, down.

We had climbed the ladder

to the high dive of double-digit years

cannon ball crouched at the edge of the board

looking down at deceptively smooth surface

of high school and deep water.

Down, down, down, down.

And then the new wave riff returned.

We pogo stick bounced, a sort of hop

all our gangly knees and elbows

and self-consciousness could manage.

Many molts later, I drew lines for the White House

showing shipments of lobsters losing ground.

Tucked in a crevice of spreadsheet cells

was rock lobster: dried, salted, smoked, or brined,

cooked by steaming or boiling water.

My boss said, “Jean and the lobster team,

that sounds like a rock band.” And

crisscross graphs blurred into plaid.

BIO: Jean Janicke has been listening to the B52s since the days of cassette tapes. She is a writer and dancer living in Washington, DC.  Her work has appeared in The Yellow Arrow Journal, Instant Noodles, and The Last Stanza.