~
“I Hope I Don’t Get Pancreatic Cancer”
But if I do, I have it all planned out.
A haystack of cash will be set aside
To fly close family and friends to Paris with me,
Where I will inhale wine and cigarettes on cobblestone plazas,
And sing American standards like “It’s Raining Men,”
With newfound French friends that I would never have met
If it weren’t for the more affable ones with me
Asking every server where they could find a decent beret.
They will join our party after their shifts end
To drink where they once poured
And repeatedly kiss my flushed cheeks,
Hoping their stubble grates my tumor
Like a terminal truffle
Into their lungs, kidneys, blood,
So they, too, can live destructively
And whisk themselves off to an American strip mall
To cradle tubs of Pepsi as tall as baguettes
At—how do you say—the Dave and Buster’s.
~
Rich Glinnen
Best of the Net nominee, Rich Glinnen, enjoys bowling, and eating his daughter’s cheeks at his home in Bayside, NY. His work can be read in various print and online journals, as well as on his Tumblr and Instagram pages. His wife calls him Ho-ho.