The Walmart Prompt

Craig Kirchner: The Walmart Prompt

The Walmart Prompt

by Craig Kirchner

Received a rejection accompanied with:

53 Prompts Inspired by Poems,

Short Stories and Creative Nonfiction

Published in The Baltimore Review.

Quite a title, with some question of the use of capitals,

but appreciated it, read it, and used it,

everyone can use a prompt occasionally.

The best prompt is people watching,

and where better than Walmart,

second maybe only to Disney, but next door.

I start with clothing. I think back on

that sequined skirt that barely covered,

and the black leather blazer with one button cleavage.

An all-time favorite was a warm, spring day,

Mr. Linebacker in a full-length brown fur coat,

“I killt a bar,” like the Daniel Boone Trees.

Fourth in line at checkout

I see Cinderella looking at mangoes,

turn and say to the woman behind me,

“Cinderella is in produce.”

She’s doesn’t look away from the

cover of the Enquirer,

like she knows something I don’t.

I’m at the register, feel something behind me,

turn around and freak,

as Batman is about to tap me on the shoulder.

It’s all for charity,

Frankenstein, Beetlejuice

and Snow White meander by.

There’s a lady sitting by herself,

on a bench in a full black abaya and hijab,

looking down to avoid eye contact.

A blond crewcut, Brady T-shirt and cargo shorts,

stops in front of her,

and says so everybody can hear him,

“Why don’t you go back to where you came from?”

Pissed off by this crassness,

and, so everybody close, including

Mr. Quarterback can hear, I blurt out,

“What an asshole.”

Fortunately, Batman, Beetlejuice

and Frankenstein

come to my aid or there’s no telling.

People watching over for today,

contributed to the charity,

on the way to the car,

I think how this was one of the better Saturdays,

and I need to submit The Walmart Prompt

to The Baltimore Review as maybe no. 54.

Craig Kirchner thinks of poetry as hobo art, loves storytelling and the aesthetics of the paper and pen. He has had two poems nominated for the Pushcart, and has a book of poetry, Roomful of Navels. After a writing hiatus he was recently published in Decadent Review, Wild Violet, Last Leaves, Literary Heist, Ariel Chart, Cape Magazine, Flora Fiction, Young Ravens, Chiron Review, Yellow Mama, Valiant Scribe and several dozen other journals.

Cindy Rosmus originally hails from the Ironbound section of Newark, NJ, once voted the “unfriendliest city on the planet.” She talks like Anybodys from West Side Story and everybody from Saturday Night Fever. Her noir/horror/bizarro stories have been published in the coolest places, such as Shotgun Honey; Megazine; Dark Dossier; The Rye Whiskey Review, Under the Bleachers, and Rock and a Hard Place. She is the editor/art director of Yellow Mama. She’s published seven collections of short stories. Cindy is a Gemini, a Christian, and an animal rights advocate. She has recently branched out into photo illustration.