So Much Depends…

I’m kinda stuck for anything original for this week’s Writers’ Pantry over at Poets And Storytellers United, so I’m offering up this recycled veteran, originally published (ages ago) in May, 2001 by the Higginsville Reader, a fine (now defunct) print journal, and later (December, 2017) in Of Burgers and Barrooms, an outstanding print anthology from the Main Street Rag Bookstore.

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(With thanks — and aplologies — to WCW)

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So Much Depends Upon A Red Wig

Ronald hasn’t shown up again
for half a decade; vanished
after his visit to cut the ribbon
and open the public doors.
Now he merely sends an emissary
once or twice a month:
eighteen wheels and a logo
bearing frozen potatoes
and placemats or paper bags.

Meanwhile, Manager Mike pines,
longs for a simple glimpse
of pancake, of  a rubber nose,
or a pair of two-foot long
red plastic shoes.
He watches
his all-expenses-paid
managers’ incentive
Holiday in Cozumel
go south along Main,
turn left into Peking Gardens
while down the block, smirking,
his arch-enemy Wendy
serves Mike’s former regulars
with a vacant and Frosty smile.

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Poets And Storytellers United
Writers’ Pantry #37
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