Honorable Mention, October 2009 InterBoard Poetry Competition

Poetry

InterBoard Poetry Competition

Honorable Mention, October 2009

BILLS AND YET MORE BILLS *Christopher T. George* (FreeWrights Peer Review) Bills arrive uninvited at our doors predictable as death or, erm, worms. Bills! Don’t like ‘em! Take ‘em out to lunch–we’ll go Dutch! Bills on ducks and platypuses, the joke my grandma told about Bill Sticker. . . or was it Bill Poster? Will Bill Hickok, Buffalo Bill, Bill Clinton. . . the bill you paid for that Knickerbocker Glory. Bill Bailey, Bill the Bailiff, the Old Bill, Portland Bill, Bill the Cat, Bill Bixby, Bill Blass, Bill Cosby. Mein Gott! Tot up the bill for that lot! Rat-a-tat-tat, empty billfold. Hey, Bills, I’ll take a raincheck, ha ha ha! Oh, mmmmm. Hi, Mr. Death, Bill Collector. plastic cut-outs of Elvis. “Blue Hawaii.” How will I ever pay the bills? Aloha! Her facility sits south of Loch Raven: Donna and I on our wedding day in a Rolls chauffeured round the reservoir, under massive pines; 40 years before, my family arrived from the UK: huge gray fish nosed beneath the dam. Catfish, bottom feeders, corporate clowns. Deeper depths. What’s the answer–to drive Mom and myself into the deep of Loch Raven? Yet, how quick would the end be? I gnaw my lower lip, pour another whisky, drown.