In a few of the furthest furls of memory
I see an ice cream shop.
It was in Champagne-Urbana, Illinois,
so it must have been 1970 or so.
Like a candy shop from Willy Wonka
(the old version, of course) there
were tall counters and checkered tile floors
and everything was clean and gleaming.
I was very young and memory
is never what is used to be, so perhaps
it wasn’t really like that, but I think it was.
I remember an ice cream soda; chocolate syrup
in a tall frosty glass, rich milk and sparkly seltzer;
a scoop of sweet ice cream and a long shiny spoon.
Dancing Lion Chocolate is not like the memory
of the ice cream shop in Illinois, but
the ICE CREAM SODA is exactly like I remember.
We’re now making the ICE CREAM SODA of my memory. Our own chocolate syrup & seltzer, local milk, and house made ice cream.
It takes you back.