Last Nite on Earth

Kevin Himes

Issue 11 * Spring 2003

We pull up to the grocery store around 11 p.m.,
And I wonder which one of my genius ex-friends
From high school decided to hold the class reunion
In a Price Checker (or A&P, or Kroger, or whatever
Massive chain owns it this week).

For one of the first times, they've stumbled
Upon an appropriate view of our school --
The meat market is alive and well,
Even ten years later. "You look so healthy,"
An ex-cheerleader purrs at me. I coo, "It's so
Good
of you to notice."

Outside, an obese girl (as Kevin Spacey's
Character in The Usual Suspects says, "orca fat")
Show off her sunburn, salmon stripes down her arms.
The royal blue bikini doesn't hide enough.
She wears the American flag as a cape, like she's some
Anorexic superstar on the cover of Maxim. Then the
Black transvestite (as if any woman would wear that)
Comes up in the purple spandex and feathers and it's all okay --
This is more real than the Stepford Wives scene inside.