I've sent you my wish list, she says.
I check my phone; a notification:
her Google Docs link.
I open it:
color-coded audacity
line after line of hyperlinked expectations.
One click and the item pulls up
in her size, color, specifications.
Her list contains multitudes:
1. bracelets with pearls and porcelain;
4. watches with color and velcro.
5. shirts without backs;
6. shirts with more holes than fabric.
7. Shirts from other countries (but the tariffs!);
8. "Studio Seven Designs Gift Card."
5. Shorts with names like "high rise hotty hot shorts"
—shorts with inseams like "2.5 inches"
—shorts with prices like "$68 plus tax and shipping."
Shorts with fly-away sides
cut up to the hip bone.
A spot where I'd myself
attach a side blade,
were I an Amazon goddess.
Speaking of Amazon
more links, to drinkware:
2. Owala this, Owala that.
3. Owala with the fruit;
Owala with the cap.
This, I cannot stand.
I search up a key requirement:
"Are Owala bottles dishwasher safe?"
"Hand wash recommended."
I screenshot the evidence;
add it into her list as a suggested edit.
Off somewhere else in the house,
I hear a sigh.
I receive a notification:
"Your edit has been accepted."
I keep scrolling.
Overall, her lists are
becoming more reasonable.
I mean, sort of.
Last year, she asked for a
sectional sofa from Pottery Barn
for her bedroom;
forbade anyone else to sit on it.
This year,
her list ends with Capitalist grabs:
9. AE Gift Card
10. Aerie Gift Card
11. Pottery Barn Gift Card.
It goes on:
"12. Edikted Gift Card"
— Pause: I have to look this up —
Oh dear.
I's a mash-up of Forever 21
and 2000s Playboy cover outfits
—unlined crochet tie-front wrap tops
a young woman posing next
to a locker holding her stiletto spike
denim shirts that could be mistaken for belts —
and whatever a
"backless low neck mini dress" is.
All these tiny garments,
targeted to underage teens.
I'm too old
and she's too young for this.
My eyes
and my browser
need a cleanse.
Next.
13. Florence By Mills Gift Card
Hmm Millie Bobbie Brown's brand
—possible, maybe —
Ah, in case all else fails
she has written:
"14. Money."
My little girl is growing up.
She's found her voice
she's found her tastes
and now I guess I need to find my wallet.
