A WIDOW WITHOUT A HONEYMOON OR A SUGAR DADDY

by Tom Fillion

I can taste

the queen

In the honey

But not the sting

In the upside down

Orange blossom tree

In the Hoosier cabinet

dispensed

by gravity

and worker bees

that live fifty days

transporting nectar and pollen

according to the queen’s five-year plan

as tribute

to her six-sided mason jars

in the hive

capped by wax

and royal ferment

a new queen is born

as larva

for the next coronation

happens when the old queen abdicates

and leaves behind

her successor,

the new virgin queen

has her choice of drones

whose sole purpose

is to pollinate her

then die

so she may live a lifetime

as a widow

without a honeymoon

or a sugar daddy

Panopticon

by Tom Fillion

There sits Jeremy Bentham’s

Dissected cadaver

Inside a glass case

On a wooden stool

At University College London

The head is made of wax

Under the jacket and the waistcoat

Hides his webcam

Watching and recording

all who pass

In front of him

Now Bentham was no dummy

Despite his present condition

The wax replaced the brain

Of a renowned philosopher

Of utilitarianism

and the separation of church from state,

freedom of expression and individual rights

yet one of his ideas,

the Panopticon,

belied the others

in that people

will obey the rules

of the watchman

situated in a central location

hidden from view by all

the idea of the watchman

and not the reality

gets planted in the brains of all

so the population thinks

they are being watched

for whatever reason

whether it’s true or not

the possibility exists

that they’ re leading a double life

of someone else’s expectations

and must examine their surroundings

constantly for their extended selves

under incessant surveillance and subterfuge

from heads of wax

and cadavers in waistcoats

Babysitting for National Security

by Tom Fillion

In 1961 it was nuclear warheads in Cuba

And Khrushchev yelling “Nyet”

That had us crouching under our desks

At Catholic school

Then came Vietnam

That turned out to be

A parlor game of dominoes

Like the old Cuban, Spanish, and Italian men

Play at Centro Asturiano in Ybor City

After that came a beach party

And bravado in Grenada

Gulf War one was a textbook example

of how the West won a battle

in a much larger conflagration

and Gulf War two was an example of

if at first you succeed go back

and fuck it up

with party favors and yellow cake

and now it is a war against immigrants

characterized as “invaders”

from banana split republics

who come armed with weapons

of mass desperation, travail, and children

and border agents greet

and treat the boys

to an old Walmart

with American incarceration

made in China

the youngest and the girls

have not been seen

but somewhere in America

babysitters in night vision goggles

are protecting us

from toddlers

with Pablum and diapers

We’ve come a long way, baby!

IT IS NOT THE MOUNTAIN THAT WE CONQUER BUT OURSELVES

by Tom Fillion

Sir Edmund Hillary said

It is not the mountain we conquer

but ourselves

And yet

it is easier to be made

a fool of

than to convince you that

someone fooled you

like a mountain that

is there to climb

every step to the top

is one less rock

to make you think

the world isn’t flat

and one more rock

to show you

the world hasn’t fallen

onto hard times

THE FOREST AND THE TREES

by Tom Fillion

It is easy to convince

A tree that it is a forest

In the springtime and summer

When the rain and snowmelt

Fill its empty branches with fresh leaves

And birds of every feather

Find hermitage within the bower

And yet when fall and winter

Strip away the façade

The forest stands

Alone and unconvinced

sturdy as a tree

That it ever was one

WHEN TIME FLIES

by Tom Fillion

Time flies but YOU ARE THE NAVIGATOR

there is no magnetic north

on the compass

to fly to

Or flight plans

to follow

priority boarding is universal

there are always delays

and layovers

but never cancellations

or flying backwards

when time flies

security is lax

carry-ons aren’t checked

baggage is free

every seat has a window

and leg room to spare

seat belts are available

but not required

there are no air pockets

or weather to avoid

time always flies on autopilot

because the trip is

just a fly-over

to earn more

frequent flyer miles

for the next trip

Thomas Fillion is the author of 5 novels and 2 books of poetry. A new novel, The Year of Broken Glass, is in the works. A number of his short stories and poems reside online. He graduated from the University of South Florida in Tampa and is the third generation of his family to work at Mt. Washington Cog Railroad in New Hampshire. His experience as a waterbed set-up man inspired The Dream Mechanic, a colorful look at 1970s Me Generation. His teaching career began at Hillsborough County Adult High School as an English and math instructor. In 1991, Desert Storm, he was an English language trainer for the Royal Saudi Air Force in Taif, Saudi Arabia. He has also taught Ringling circus children and was a private tutor for Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys. For twenty years he taught math and coached track, tennis, and golf at Robinson High School. He is now gainfully unemployed, i.e., retired, and spends his time writing, riding a bicycle along Tampa’s Bayshore Boulevard and Riverwalk, picking a guitar, grilling some dinner, and traveling to New Mexico and Vermont. Most recently his new book of poems, Everyone Gets a Trophy, has become available on Amazon. Kirkus gave it a good review. @dream_mechanic, facebook.com/dreammechanic,

https://thomasmfillion.substack.com/

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