Travelers Welcome

Travelers Welcome

Thursday, June 30, 2011

The Today Show’s Just Been Swapped
For Kaptain Kangaroo
And Bunny Rabbit Seems
To Be Hung Over Too


by Richard Hartwell

Across an ashtrayed table scratchy eyes watch the boy
Open a cereal box from the bottom,
Set a purple Frankenstein against an upset wine glass,
And the milk somehow spill itself.

Quick elf-eyes listen for rebuke, but only hear the clash
Of liquid ivory and mountain red
Pooling in a walnut stain and single snores from a double bed.
No fetched sponge to wash the sin away.

Frankenstein tests my patience stirring the purple-white puddle,
But the yin and yang
Of wine and milk won’t mix, so his puppeteer leaves
For the world of rerun cartoons.

I once opened cereal boxes from the bottom
And played with plastic monsters and spilt milk,
But as Bunny Rabbit falls off the stage,
And cereal resettles in the box,
I find that I am hungry still,
But breakfast isn’t served here anymore.

                    *   *   *

It’s a freeway morning and caféd off-ramps beckon
   with coffee and toast.
However, there’s a place down the road a ways
That caters to cornflakes and wine.
I know the waitress there, and
Breakfast is served forever.

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