I Turned Seventeen Today

no party with hot pink streamers and a special birthday princess dress no singing, no cake, no toys I had a quiet dinner in a small italian restaurant with my father. The waitress gave me a scoop of ice cream and asked if I wanted to be sung to I said no. My father told me that I’d be gone in a year with a sad, strained look on his face. Some time, between the mushy lasagna and barbie dolls at some unnoticed, intangible moment february twenty-sixth changed. no longer a celebration but instead the omnipresent ticking of the wall clock.