The Portland Review

Treasure Hunters

by Lydia Ship

We were looking for wisdom and saved up for wisdom detectors to use much like treasure hunters moving in the cadence of the blind on stillborn beaches. Then we had to save up for time. When we got the time, we frittered it away on petty things rather than using the wisdom detectors for wisdom. Sometimes we used the wisdom detectors to detect fancy food. Sometimes we turned them on and watched them all night as they sat in front of the televisions, detecting nothing. We took them to the ping pong gym with us. We took them to where all the rainbow babies bounce, blue babies and pink babies, purple babies and red babies and black babies and green babies. The babies most enjoyed the wisdom detectors—airbag swish, tiny lights blinking out.