Preparing a Five Course Meal for World Class Villains
Forget what you’ve heard. Revenge is best served slightly chilled. Think of refrigerated applesauce or ice water left for a half hour in the sun.
Next, offer up grievances. They can be either mostly suppressed or rapidly bleeding.
Beware: this course can drag on. A time limit is not a bad idea.
Then, as required by gossip and custom, there’s the one who got away. This is likely a high school crush, still lit up in memory’s technicolor. Only the most self-abusive like to linger here, so hurry along with excuses. It’s almost time for the main dish.
Blindfolds are required. The more freshly ironed, the better. These help everyone focus.
Picture a dark tunnel filled with snakes, frogs, ferns, and a stuttering music clipped from old voices. The tunnel ends with an explosion of resolutions, tears, or nervous laughter.
Once silence descends, it’s time for dessert. Let it be dark chocolate mousse or black and white photos of prisoners lining up for a shower. Dessert is just an excuse for each person to sip coffee and count to one hundred and one.
©2022 Mike James All rights reserved.
Mike James makes his home outside Nashville, Tennessee. He has published in numerous magazines, large and small, throughout the country. His many poetry collections include: Leftover Distances (Luchador), Parades (Alien Buddha), Jumping Drawbridges in Technicolor (Blue Horse), and Crows in the Jukebox (Bottom Dog.) His latest collection, Portable Light: Poems 1991-2021, was just published by Red Hawk.