popcorn bowl (born of doug utter’s delicate balance), by Ryan Rowland

Delicate Balance, by Douglas Utter (USA) contemporary. Photo taken by Ryan Rowland of painting in his own collection.

popcorn bowl (born of doug utter’s delicate balance)

In the tv room painted entirely 
Forest green one window two panes a portal to the black night and its offering of 
An even number of 8 stars to share
Lillian and Ricky sat down in their same green chairs that matched the walls. Lillian had gone
white kitchen recently for resale purposes she
Turned, crossed her arms over her lap and presented a farm bowl of 
popcorn on the empty card table that forever provides a distance of 
4 feet between the marriage of two chairs 
Ricky folded
his leg over the opposite knee in his Friday night 
 
bright
 
red pants gold and black tie and reached for a claw of buttered starch stirring his pointer finger towards the bottom to find one of them Monterey 
jack cheese cube surprises that Lillian anchors way down in the bowls of Friday night
popcorn. she sinks

only 8 cubes to keep Ricky pickin’ after 31 and a half years just when he thought he had settled
down on the spongy ridge of a good cheese block the yellow and white kernels 
 
exploded 

out of the ceramic bowl and Ricky retracted his hand looked up and saw Lillian staring at his
blue face wearing a planet earth 
indigo space martian 
head shield pressure
equalized over her entire skull look
Ricky was an 
almost retired chemical engineer for the number 3 Japanese plastic injection molding company
in the world he understood 2 things the confluence of
 
science 
eastern spirituality and 
a little about women so
 
he paused. and spoke of impermanence, 
chemical change to Lillian in a calm voice 

Lillian,
this popcorn that might I add we both enjoy was once a hard very small kernel and ok. things
got heated. to a certain temperature then it changed, into a new blossom-shaped bite but
Lillian dear, once that initial change occurs usually we are good for a while to just enjoy I don’t,
but perhaps you understand, how possibly this bowl of our favorite Friday popcorn has
suddenl-
 
and his words stopped as the soaring kernels settled down mid-air and 
grew stems. They became orange yellow cubic flowers like tiger lilies on an edible 
arrangement but real 
quick Ricky relaxed his shoulders and Lillian took the globe shield off her head filled it with
water plucked one of the flowers and put in this repurposed fish tank vase
on the window ledge under those 8 stars and that special big rock see

a moon Ricky, aint nothin but a hunk of cheese. Least it’s told so in all the stories to the
grandbabies. Ricky boy, there’s your big ol’ cheese cube sweetie. It
hung mid orbit in the corner of the top pane and she walked back to her chair arms crossed on
her lap and declared 
are you angry with me and Ricky said 
you are so alive. 
How could I be angry with
you and Lillian said 
I am so happy.

Ryan Rowland 

Ryan Rowland lives and writes in Cleveland, Ohio.  His work has been featured by Ornery Quarterly and is forthcoming from Heavy Feather Review this fall. He is a founding member of good word cleveland, a collective of emerging writers.
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