Berenstein/Berenstain
Many of us speculate that parallel realities exist, and we’ve been ‘sliding’
between them without realizing it.
—From the mandelaeffect.com Frequently Asked Questions page
I’m sliding on Long Island ice, Ma, trying to grit the ground
so I can walk on kilter for the first time in months.
“Berenstain or Berenstein?”
“Berenstein, always.”
I look for cracks, misplaced letters, mistakes in history texts,
ask my friends how they spell a children’s book.
“Berenstein or Berenstain?”
“Still Berenstein.”
Mirrors haunt me twofold, since I see your carbon copy, 21 years
young, separated by a glass, a world, a letter, maybe.
“Berenstain or Berenstein?”
“You know the answer.”
I just—I need someone to answer the other, just once, because maybe,
I’ll come home, and you’ll be there, reading it to my nieces,
and I’ll stop stepping on cracks
because I’ll have you back.
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Rachel Colomban is a senior English (creative writing) major and anthropology minor at SUNY Geneseo. She’s about as organized as a group of irate toddlers and half as productive. If there isn’t a deadline, she isn’t getting it done. Her fictional best friends would probably be the Weasley twins. Well, at least one of them if we’re talking post-series, anyway. Rachel apologizes profusely for that statement.