Flash in the Flight of Fancy

Back to that 1998 post-apocalyptic zoo
in wherever, somewhere, anywhere, Missouri,
and this time,
one time,
only time,
he’s going to have a good time.

Today is going to be different.
Today, he’s going to do different things.

Maybe even wave to the fairytale giant,
smoking a cigarette behind the reptile room,
wondering if the gas station near his apartment
is going to hire him for the remainder of the holiday season.

He meant to before,
because there was just something
about that guy,
but children are cowards sometimes.

Not today.
When it comes to being unreasonable,
to being a physical phantom of your own stupidity,
you better go big,
or you better pretend your home
is a shack for shiftless, amputated ballroom dancers
in Kansas.

He’s going to buy a t-shirt,
bust the tigers out of February stir,
and actually learn something at the bird sanctuary.

Then it’s onward, downward,
upward, and then,
finally, forward into the present situation
in Hilt, California.

It’s not so much a town,
as it is a liquor store that has seen a lot
of good things go badly very quickly.

The car is filling up with people
who are definitely alive,
and definitely creating expansive snow globes
to cash in on the present March to April revolution.

He’s going to secure a seat up front,
kiss the beautiful driver for goodnight good luck,
and leave something behind to choke quietly
on the model dust bowl that is simply responding
to the construction worker listening to a Spanish hip-hop station
about a block away.

 

Artwork © Allison Goldin

Artwork © Allison Goldin

 

Gabriel Ricard is a writer, editor, and actor. He is a contributor with Cultured Vultures, an editor with Kleft Jaw Press, and the Film Department Editor with Drunk Monkeys. He lives in Oregon. His first book “Clouds of Hungry Dogs” is available at Kleft Jaw Press.

Allison Goldin is an artist living in California. Her work is a collection of spontaneous drawings from the imagination. The most common link throughout her art are the semi-recognizable creatures scattered amongst and bringing together the surrounding doodles.