and I was like Bill! I’m a fan! Come over for lunch!
and he said he’d be delighted though he was sunburned
and wearing a salmon-colored shirt which made him
self-conscious he told me in confidence
I served tuna sandwiches on my best floral-print plates
which didn’t look so floral I had to admit in the hands
of the former president who was now playing sax
in my garden and his goofy but hopeful melodies
brought a small gang of children to my yard
which made him grin pied-piper style around the reed
and when he finished the kids were like Bill!
We’re hungry for more! Play more! Bill! We’re
hungry! Bill! More! We’re hungry Bill! Bill!
But he didn’t respond since he was hearing CNN
through his earpiece and staring thoughtfully
at my wife’s petunias and my neighbor’s little cabbages
Jeffrey Bean is Professor of English at Central Michigan University. He is author of two chapbooks and the poetry collections Woman Putting on Pearls and Diminished Fifth. Recent poems appear or are forthcoming in The Southern Review, The Antioch Review, The Missouri Review, and Willow Springs, among other journals.
