poems from slogans
Ian FitzGerald
$5
Everything’s better with Blue Bonnet on itpublished in Ottawa by above/ground press
Morning breaks - sparkle filter
on a sun-kissed kitchen.
Everything you need to start your day –
Margarine spread so thick you can barely
detect the toasted airiness of Wonder Bread underneath,
tall glass of Tang, Froot Loops with powdered milk
completes the scene,
sets up the brush-cut teen
for a high calibre day.
Shiny-faced Jimmy eats up, smiles at aproned mom.
Mom smiles back, channels Donna Reid,
June Cleaver and Aunt Bee – can’t believe how
quickly Jimmy’s growing into
his brother’s old clothes,
his father’s feet.
His country calls; Jimmy answers.
Gets helmet, rifle, tags, climbs into a C-130 transport.
Added to the casualty list just three weeks in.
Along a glossy, granite wall in Washington D.C.
she walks among thousands of Jimmys.
Everything seems synthetic or broken
or both.
She drops to her knees, slips a knife from her purse
and tries to scrape off his name.
September 2024
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy
Ian FitzGerald’s professional background in advertising led to teaching at Alberta University of the Arts in Calgary, Alberta. He has trifled with poetry since teenage and is getting dangerously close to thinking he should take it seriously, maybe. He is quite keen on poetry and hopes one day that will be requited.
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