Paradox Lake - Thanksgiving 1972

Corny: I haven't used real butter
In years

Only eat this fake crap now the
Colorful plastic tub

Slather it on the baked potatoes 
All you like

Won't hurt you none as a left eye 
Twitched some

His gleaming mouth stretched, 
greasy rictus 

His wife Jo either laughed  
Or sneezed

The family mutt stared 
Up at me 

A faint growl hissing through 
Bared incisors

I was really only concerned for 
My Alma and 

The kids, this being Thanksgiving  
And all

Me only caring to deliver 
Them to 

A dementedly safe family feast
Late in  

The afternoon we'd hit some 
awful, icy 

Weather on the way upstate to  
Uncle Skippy's 

And spun the Jeep into 
A ditch. 

Corny was nice enough to invite us 
To his place

Wife's got turkey on the table you're 
Welcome, join us 

It seemed our host was the lone tow 
Truck driver 

In Paradox Lake, he'd explained,
There wouldn't 

Be anybody around to fix 
The vehicle

Till near Saturday and I a 
Little hesitant 

To accept his hospitality until 
He argued

Hell, 
Where else you gonna go?


© 2017 Michael Jones

Copyright © | Year Posted 2017



Post Comments

Poetrysoup is an environment of encouragement and growth so only provide specific positive comments that indicate what you appreciate about the poem. Negative comments will result your account being banned.

Please Login to post a comment

Be the first to comment on this poem. Encourage this poet.

Get a Premium Membership
Get more exposure for your poetry and more features with a Premium Membership.
Book: Reflection on the Important Things

Member Area

My Admin
Profile and Settings
Edit My Poems
Edit My Quotes
Edit My Short Stories
Edit My Articles
My Comments Inboxes
My Comments Outboxes
Soup Mail
Poetry Contests
Contest Results/Status
Followers
Poems of Poets I Follow
Friend Builder

Soup Social

Poetry Forum
New/Upcoming Features
The Wall
Soup Facebook Page
Who is Online
Link to Us

Member Poems

Poems - Top 100 New
Poems - Top 100 All-Time
Poems - Best
Poems - by Topic
Poems - New (All)
Poems - New (PM)
Poems - New by Poet
Poems - Read
Poems - Unread

Member Poets

Poets - Best New
Poets - New
Poets - Top 100 Most Poems
Poets - Top 100 Most Poems Recent
Poets - Top 100 Community
Poets - Top 100 Contest

Famous Poems

Famous Poems - African American
Famous Poems - Best
Famous Poems - Classical
Famous Poems - English
Famous Poems - Haiku
Famous Poems - Love
Famous Poems - Short
Famous Poems - Top 100

Famous Poets

Famous Poets - Living
Famous Poets - Most Popular
Famous Poets - Top 100
Famous Poets - Best
Famous Poets - Women
Famous Poets - African American
Famous Poets - Beat
Famous Poets - Cinquain
Famous Poets - Classical
Famous Poets - English
Famous Poets - Haiku
Famous Poets - Hindi
Famous Poets - Jewish
Famous Poets - Love
Famous Poets - Metaphysical
Famous Poets - Modern
Famous Poets - Punjabi
Famous Poets - Romantic
Famous Poets - Spanish
Famous Poets - Suicidal
Famous Poets - Urdu
Famous Poets - War

Poetry Resources

Anagrams
Bible
Book Store
Character Counter
Cliché Finder
Poetry Clichés
Common Words
Copyright Information
Grammar
Grammar Checker
Homonym
Homophones
How to Write a Poem
Lyrics
Love Poem Generator
New Poetic Forms
Plagiarism Checker
Poetics
Poetry Art
Publishing
Random Word Generator
Spell Checker
Store
What is Good Poetry?
Word Counter