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Daytime at Panera's by Andrew Rihn

“Did you just stick your fingers in cream cheese, you little munchkin?”
“It’s squishy,” the boy says.
The mother laughs a bit, pleased. She gets more napkins. The boy reaches for his glass, spills it.
“Shit!” he exclaims.
The mother spins around, cheeks reddening. People nearby smirk at each other.




Andrew Rihn is the author of two chapbooks of poetry: While Grasshoppers Mate (Spare Change Press, 2008) and The Alphabetical Atheist (Scars Publications, 2009). He has two more collections, The Accidental Atheist and America Plops and Fizzes, forthcoming from New Sins/Winged City Press and sunnyoutside press, respectively.