Our Marriage Counselor Suggests We Choose a Safe Word for When We Fight

How about a safe buzzer? I blurt out

though I’m not sure why—

a little button to push, maybe

a safe alarm,

complete with sprinklers

to cool us down

when words become unsafe.

Perhaps a safe chicken dance?

Or decibel-activated

safe clown noses that descend

from the ceiling like oxygen masks—

or, hell, even oxygen masks

to remind us how to breathe.

Safe confetti, strobe light

and disco ball?

Two microphones and a safe

karaoke machine?

What is our safe song,

the one we’ll butcher

instead of butchering

everything?

OK, I know the one.

I’ll be Kenny, you be Dolly,

and we’ll be soaking wet,

tiny squares of colored paper

sticking to our faces, arms

and legs, chicken dancing

in the kitchen with big red noses,

sirens and firetrucks gathering

outside, the safe searchlights

we keep for such occasions

sweeping their great big

loving arms

across the sky.