He says and she says and then I says
the girl holds her phone aloft
ear plugs dangle from each side of her frazzled head
a tiny microphone suspended in mid air
and then I says and she says and can you believe what he says
undaunted by honking horns and screaming sirens
and then he says and then she says and can you guess what I says
embracing the great tradition of oral storytelling
this gum-cracking adolescent avoids the pitfall of past or future tenses
and with the wisdom of Buddha stays rooted in the present moment
assuming that it will last long enough to get her wherever she is going