Packerton, IN

I think
this town's main economy
is the county landfill.
Which may also be
the source of it's lawn ornaments.

There are six lawnmowers and
a playground merry-go-round
but the centerpiece would have to be
the Coke machine.

Orange and white
It sits by the roadside
tipped precariously back towards the lawn.

The sign reads:

QUARTERS ONLY
NO NICKELS DIMES
OR PENNIES NO
CANADIAN MONEY

Edvidence, I think
That I do not want to meet the owner.

Or
That I could probably get a pop for two nickels.

But also
That someone must check this thing daily
that the machine is stocked
and the pop is probably ice cold.

Perhaps I'll contribute to the local economy.

My gloved hands find
Massachusetts, Indiana
and a spare key---
enough to test my theory.

Two clinks and a tap
on ROOT BEER in magic marker
rattle down
a frosty can of Mug.

And I wonder if that means
that those six lawnmowers
would start on the first pull.

a e k

A Fine Place to Di e

The jazz was swinging at Milano's. Plates of pasta swung their way to customers as the chatter of a very full restaurant ebbed and flowed to the beat. No one noticed the guy with the gun until it was too late.

No one really called Don Givenni a victim; if anything, people said, he had it coming, and he had been asking for it. Well, he's got it now, thought Tony Milano, as he spied yet another camera crew doing a piece for the evening news outside the front door. Wish they'd just go away.

But, of course, they didn't. If anything, the shooting had advertised the place to all of Chicago, and he was having to hire more staff just to keep up. The place had mystique now. Milano's was cool. He could have done without the college kids dressing in too-big overcoats and trying to talk gangster through their rolled-up paper cigars, but he couldn't complain.