Sestina

Collaboration with Aytch Rae

At the grease-streaked table, he eyed her over his waffle.
The Jack & strobes had masked her chipped front tooth
now illuminated in the 3 a.m. diner; a post- "Happy Trails" trip.
Her bar-bubbly conversation turned to croaking short and stout
vapors, like a teapot trapped bullfrog. Bus boy punk
smirked at them while hauling syrup smeared dishes to the sink.

She has taken the time to watch her ambitions sink,
so she picks up married men. Enjoys watching them waffle.
Knows the teachers are right when they call her son a punk.
Bored, she eyes the man with the dead gray tooth.
Her eyes reel him, he comes over with a pint of stout.
She sighs. Middle aged middle management on business trip.


The couple at table five was such a trip.
Bussing nervous curls of napkin he saw them sink,
pressed deep into the Naugahyde by stout
pre-regrets. He imagines them later with waffle
marks of cheap pillowcases on their faces, fine-tooth
combing their guilt. Cupid is such a punk.


Things to forget, how he got to prison. Prison. The nightly punking.
He despises the loneliness of his life, the twisted pain filled trip.
It all started when his mother forgot the quarter for his first lost tooth
Clenched jaw silent he returns to the syrup stuck plates filling the sink
Angered by prowling cougars passing him by. He nibbles half eaten waffle
Thinks back to childhood, like Jack Sprat, he would take a wife that's stout.


Chaired in judgement at the front door, stout
bat across his knees, he waits. Even Mom believes he's a punk.
She's out again and he won't let her waffle
if just once she'd stuck around...well, this is her last trip.
His turn to choke up, and feel the slugger sink
in flesh and blood. He'll fight her nail and tooth.


Bits of bone and broken tooth
Wizened weathered witch bent and stout
Feral claws into his flesh begin to sink
Her embered eyes smolder like lit punk.
His mind trapped and tricked, deadly acid trip
Hunger haunted he finishes and feeds on chicken and waffles.


Long-toothed Cupid, tired of being love's punk
tosses sagging diaper and stout bow. He's sick of the trip.
Pours idealism down the sink, heads to Denny's for a midnight waffle.