Poem: Paradox Lake - Thanksgiving 1972
Corny: "I haven't used real butter
In years
Only eat this fake crap now the
Colorful plastic tub
Slather it on the baked potatoes
All you like
Won't hurt you none" as a left eye
Twitched some
His gleaming mouth,
greasy rictus
His wife Jo either laughed
Or sneezed
The family mutt stared
Up at me
A faint growl hissing
Bared incisors
Really only concerned for
My Alma and
The kids, this being Thanksgiving
And all
Me only caring to deliver
To and from
A dementedly safe family feast
But late in
The afternoon we'd hit some
awful, icy
Weather on the way upstate to
Uncle Skippy's
And spun the Jeep into
A steep ditch.
Corny was nice enough to invite us
To his place
Wife's got turkey on the table you're
Welcome, join us
It seemed our host was the lone tow
Truck driver
In Paradox Lake, he'd explained,
There wouldn't
Be anybody around to fix
The vehicle
Till near Saturday and I a
Little hesitant
To accept his hospitality until
He argued
"Hell, man
Where else you gonna go?"
© 2017 Michael Jones
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