Code Pink

Once you get a certain age you stop seeing jellyfish
or at least you stop going to the ocean so if you are old
and want to see jellyfish you should get a library card
and check out a book on fish in the ocean or just go
to the grocery store and buy a fish and some jelly
and tell the cashier what you plan to do this morning
after you walk home from the grocery store with your
groceries and wait for her to say Oh My Goodness.
 
 

Paint

Even the creator is baffled that mankind believes that a small yellow circle, with small yellow lines
pointing out in every direction, could be imagined as the sun. When you paint a smile in the circle
then it makes more sense. It’s the sun all right. Inside the sun is a little person who wants to burn to death.
That should be stopped.
 
 

Scarf

It was so cold that I put on a scarf. I forgot all about it, and when I came home, a stranger was in my house. He asked me if I thought I was fancy because I was wearing a scarf. I said, I do indeed look fancy I think. But I told him that it was so cold that is why I put on a scarf. And he said, It isn’t cold in here. And I said, It isn’t cold in here, but I like wearing a scarf and it was cold outside. And he said, Probably because it makes you feel fancy. And I said, Can’t some people just enjoy wearing a scarf? And he said, But it’s cold outside. And I said, Everybody outside is wearing a scarf and is fancy. I said, You don’t know if they enjoy wearing scarfs until they come inside. It’s warm inside. It’s like home. And he said, Then why don’t you come inside and make yourself at home, he said. But I am at home, I said. No I’m not, I said. I am a stranger in this house, I said.
 
 
 
Ricky Garni is a graphic designer and machinist from Carrboro, North Carolina. His work is widely available in print, on the Web and in a number of anthologies, in addition to five nominations and one honorable mention for the Pushcart Prize. Some of his recent titles include: The Eternal Journals of Crispy Flotilla, Maybe Wavy and The Sea of Kicking Legs. Jiggle Fest, a collection of short prose, was released in December 2014. The Pinky Embrace will be released late summer, 2015.