Overheard at Booth 3

I heard that the Republicans are trying to gut funding for NPR.

Normally that'd hack me off, but ever since that fiasco about Juan Williams, the bravest NPR ever gets any more is talking abotu how Facebook is changing our eating habits.

So I take it that means you're not going to donate this year.

Dude! Last year they had an expose that showed how the private prison industry orchestrated the Arizona immigrant law in order to build permanent jails to house women and kids. That was big! That was huge! Ever hear that story?

No.

Dang right you didn't! I wanna know why. But NPR broke it, and then suddenly they are deflated like a limp balloon. I don't even know why the Republicans want to bother any more, they've already scared NPR into complete sycophantic submission!

Sounds to me like that'd make you want to donate even more. Get NPR weaned off their government umbilical cord. Put it right into the hands of the public, the way it should be.

Yeah. We've already got that. It's called Pacifica radio.

The "America-can-do-no-right" station?

Well, yeah, I guess sometimes they get a little TOO progressive, even for me. But man, if there was some sort of balance between the two, that'd be perfect.

Dare to dream.

Overheard at Table 3

I think I'm becoming a radical.

Why's that?

My kid came home last night, they've got him memorizing the first lines of the Declaration of the Independence.

That's good.

Yeah! That part's great. We should all know about our ideals - but get this: he's firmly convinced that it's the Preamble to the Constitution, and that the freedoms listed are in the Bill of Rights.

Do you think he's confused?

Well, he's 12, so I think he should know better, I mean, if they were teaching him better. It's the muddled up that gets me . . . that, and the other thing.

What other thing?

Well, it's what came out of my mouth when he started reciting it.

Which was?

Well, it's best if I show you. Recite the Declaration.

OK. "When in the course of human events . . . "

No no no. Sorry. Start with the second paragraph.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal . . .

- they just become unequal when they don't work hard enough.

". . . and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights . . ."

- unless the giant corporations want to take away those rights, or keep them for themselves.

". . . that among these are Life . . ."

- unless you are a doctor who performs abortions or a medically ill inmate on Death Row in Texas.

". . . Liberty . . ."

- unless you are labeled an enemy combatant born anywhere in the world, since we've declared the Earth a battlefield.

" . . . and the Pursuit of Happiness."

- unless you are gay, lesbo, bi, transgender, progressive, liberal, feminist, pacifist, Democrat, evolutionist, scientist, intellectual, union worker, drive a Japanese car, or are any religion other than Protestant Christian.

Wow. I'm amazed you're not being followed right now.

I think I am. See those guys in the suits at the counter?

Them? I thought they were going to a costume party dressed as the Blues Brothers.

Overhead at Table 2

Husband: So, how do you feel?

Wife: Like we're still in a dream. Did that really happen? Did we just buy our dream home?

Husband: We sure did. Got the keys, the garage door opener, everything. It's ours.

Wife: C'mere, gimme a kiss.

Husband: Oh, sure, NOW you want a kiss! Before closing you were all, like, 'ugh, get away!' just because I'd had onions for lunch!

Wife: Yes, but I'm going to kiss you now, because you just bought me a house!

Husband: Wow. Wonder what I gotta do to get laid!

Overheard at Table 1

Ava Guday: While waiting for the 220 today I saw this van passing by, and the name on the side was DH Lawrence Carpet Installers.

Ana Phalaxis: D.H. Lawrence Carpet Installers?

Connie Undrum: They probably specialize in SHAG!

Overheard at Booth 3

did you hear we finally started bombing Libya?

it's about time! everyone in the world was asking us to - save the people from Quadaffi.

yeah, but soon's we did now everyone's mad at us - the Russians, the Arab League, the African Union, even the Republicans!

that's freakin'weird! I never thought I'd see the day when the Republicans didn't want to send bombs into a Muslim country.

yeah, but you know, if Obama does it, then they're against it.

yeah, I know, Obama could erase the taxes for every oil corporation and drug company and insurance agency in America, he could kill the EPA and OSHA and the minimum wage, and they'd STILL find something wrong with him.

sometimes it just seems like the guy can't catch a break. I mean, he's really TRYING to do everything the conservatives want, I mean, he's kept the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, he's letting the oil companies gut the Gulf . . .

. . . he's getting us into another war with no end . . .

right, another war with no end, that's right! I mean, what in the world do these guys WANT?

I dunno. Seems like they're not gonna be satisfied until . . . honestly, I don't KNOW when they'll ever be satisfied.

The Rapture, maybe?

Nah! They'll probably be peeved at God for taking so long. Not working to THEIR schedule.

Yeah, they'll probably call God a liberal.

Wasn't He?

Shhhhhhhh, don't say that too loud! Somebody will hear and will eviscerate us!

Sotano de las Golondrinas

Left at the Counter: from 360s

Scribbled on a stream of napkins:

from 360s
364: 226.

226.

Because, men, she yearns still to
be desired,
she requires your flame, your
torrent of dizzying poetry –
those words that you
lavished on her
like
snowdrops in bloom.

Try to remember, gentlemen,
the tone of your voice
on that first date – how you
at moments,
lost your breath
rushing to speak to her –

a slight hesitation, trying to form
the perfect compliment for the

way she held her glass,

remember how she blushed, slightly,
at the sincerity of what you said, how her

eyes
turned away the moment you mentioned
the earth-hewn beauty of their color,

remember how she used to smile, eversosoftly,
when you noticed a

new pair of earrings,
a haircut,
a new perfume.

Now, men,
now she is just your wife,

and the only men who
need her without ceasing

are your sons.
and your daughters sneer at her behind their
own eyeshadowed smirks for the

sensuality that she left at the hospital
after the firstborn,

and she meanders her days with other people’s schedules,
managing the times of other people’s lives, balancing
the baseball practices, the Algebra tutoring, your drycleaning,
and the thumblessness of her own alleged career,

and inbetween gymnastic meets she follows
the perfect shapes of jumba CDs, dancing away that soft
middleaged riff that you no longer hold gently from behind

with a soft kiss on her neck, and

she does this because
that girl is still there.

That girl is not gone, buried under layers of
Oil of Olay and antioxidents and teeth whitening strips, that

girl who blushed is only dormant, wrapped
inside a bud made of
motherhood and wifehood and househood,

but she is there,

awaiting the spring of your words
to rain sweetly down upon her,

so that she may
bloom again.