The ice cream melted long before the world froze over

The ice cream melted long before the world froze over

We stood behind the flats,

elbows touching,

watching it drip down

like it already knew

how things end

Yours was cherry, mine was mint

You said flavour didn’t matter,

not when the sun was killing everything

soft and slow

We licked what we could

let the rest run wild

like rules no longer mattered

like we had days to waste

Later, they said don’t panic

but the sirens laughed through every window

They sealed off parks

chalked white crosses on closed shop doors

and fed us silence for supper

You stopped answering

said the cold suited you

less sweat, less fuss

You always liked endings

neat and quiet

I found your cone in the gutter

half-buried in grit

ants dragging the last of it

like it owed them something

We screamed on top of our voices,

high, hysterical

the knife raised, the girl cornered

just as the TV flickered blue

Then Mum:

Right. Bedtime.

You kicked off your socks

I rubbed my eyes

The horror movie still on mute

our ice creams puddled

on the tray between us

Look what you’ve done,

she sighed,

you both fell asleep

and now they’ve melted.

And that’s the part I can’t stop seeing,

two cones we couldn’t save

even in our own dream

before the world

turned real again

and colder than we imagined

On this after midnight winters night.