"How's it going, Pops?" asks a bagboy.
"It sucks!" says Pops, a real wise-ass.
Pops is bald on top, with wild tufts of white hair sticking out over his ears, bushy eyebrows, sloping nose and forehead, and a wide grin.
Loudly, Pops proclaims, "I'm thinkin' about hopping a freight train outta here!"
Agee smiles quietly. He is a black man, not quite as fat as Pops, who always sports a beret, a goatee, and bifocals with heavy rectangular frames of dark burgundy.
Pops and Agee continue tp speak to the bagboys as they plod along, pushing the shopping carts with oxygen tanks in them.
"What's the problem, Pops?" asks a bagboy.
"That goddam looney bin they keep us in, that's what! How would you like to live with all those crazy mutherfuckers?"
Agee says, "Watch your damn language, Pops."
"Oh, by all means!" says Pops sarcastically. "I wouldn't want to corrupt these unblemished lambs!"
As they shuffle past the bagboys, Agee looks at the teenager and says, "Got to keep the loonies on the path."
"Hey, that's from Pink Floyd," says the bagboy. "You know Pink Floyd?"
"Sure," says Agee.
"Yeah," adds Pops. "Wish you were here!"
Both men walk on toward the produce section, laughing.
- Space Savers
Monkey on a Stick, by Brad Hamlin, is the most graphic account of what I think it would be like to be in the military, when you don't want to be, that I have read. The futility and pointlessness of it all, the drugs and alcohol. The blend of poetry and sort of prose poem narrative. It was very very good. I enjoyed it very much. I like the fact that you have a "guest author".
Day at the Office. You could send this one in to a short short fiction contest too.
Zaffer Colonic. Its pretty much William S. Burroughs. Dr. Carruthers and Doc Benway – has anyone seen them at the same time?
Meme Rhymes with Scheme. You have a sort of Agatha Christie plot, a cast of eccentric characters, and here the Slacker Bill guy appears to his best effect, playing the un-straight man to the others.
The poems were good too.
Keep crankin' out the work!
Mike Norris
