Gummi Bears

Picture your mother. No, a statue of your mother.

A statue of your mother made of gummi bears: every cell

of your mother’s body represented by a single gummi bear.

There are six million gummi bears making up her eye, alone.

There are one hundred and fifty billion gummi bears in her brain –

mostly those creepy colorless ones that don’t have any flavor,

and some red. She is made of so many gummi bears that

if you can tell it’s her face, if you can see that it’s her, you can’t tell

that she’s made of gummi bears at all. And since a gummi bear

is 2000 times the size of the average human cell, this statue

of your mother is 2000 times her size, it is 11,000 feet tall, it is

the height of Mount Etna, the largest active volcano in Europe,

although she would still be smaller than Mount Etna, because

your mother is not that wide. But still, this statue of your mother

is really, really tall, and accurate to the cellular level,

so that if gummi bears could transmit potassium ions and

oxygen, and house mitochondria, and thrum an electric charge,

this statue of your mother made of gummi bears 11,000 feet high

could come alive and walk the earth in search of you, her baby,

destroying towns and causing tidal waves and crushing everything

in her path. And tears made of gummi bears would pour

down her face made of gummi bears as cornsyrup-scented air

passed from lungs made of gummi bears into vocal chords

made of gummi bears and her lips made of gummi bears

formed the sounds of the name she gave you the day you were born.

And I would still want to eat her. That’s how much I like gummi bears.

1. 2,000

2. 11,000

3. Mother