Ode To A Diet Coke

by Barbara Bobbi Linn

Soda

sweet soda,

how I miss

your pleasing fizz,

the bubbles

and the cool flowing liquid

against my thirsty throat.

Soda

I can’t drink you now,

because I’ve been sick

and your luscious liquid

is just too thin for me

to swallow.

Diet coke

how I counted on you

like others rely on cigarettes.

You got me through many a meeting,

many a long bout of depression.

Soda

there you were, your silvery can

a constant figure on my paper jammed desk.

With the striped straw towering from

your popped top, so easily I could

draw the darkened water up with my lips.

Diet coke

I know it sounds so strange

when people ask me what foods I truly miss,

and they envision

lobster, lamb chops, or filet minion,

how perplex they all seem

with my simple answer