old trick
by kenneth pobo
My neighbot Linda says
her garden’s the bast
i the neighborhood,
bursting with dahlias,
black-eyed-susans, and
mums bordered by sweet
allysum. In her driveway,
her van has a “I’m proud
of my Honor Student”.;
bunper sticker. The honor
student brags that he knows
how to make bombs, knows
which chenicals kill. Linda
frews about property values -
pen at the ready, she takes
a petition door to door
to stop school improveents
from hiking taxes. When
I see her coming, coward
that I am, I do the old trick
my mother used when
the Fuller Brush man
would pull up: cut the lights,
let him knock and knock,
pretend to be out. It works,
for now. The magenta dress
walks away, heeps tapping
on pocked cement.
