red dunce cap - william doreski

While you’re in the big box store

and I’m parking the pickup

the business goes out of business.

I enter and find gnomes and trolls

bagging merchandise that now

belongs to carnivorous hedge funds.

I can’t find you, so ask a pert

and perky garden gnome sporting

a red dunce cap. Yes, he saw you

go off with a dim husky man.

He hands me a list of convicted

sex criminals. “One of them,”

he claims. Dust and ruin creep

from storerooms to clog the aisles.

The lights fail. Emergency

exit signs blink. I exit

and wonder how your new life

is going. Maybe you snatched

a red dunce cap while escaping

the ordinary suburban world.

I hope you’re wearing it proudly,

your new lover grinning like thunder

as he adjusts it on your head.

William Doreski lives in Peterborough, New Hampshire. He has taught at several colleges and universities. His most recent book of poetry is Cloud Mountain (2024). His essays, poetry, fiction, and reviews have appeared in many journals.