Bob Lucky
Summer Solstice Sale
My wife goes to the bathroom and leaves me standing in the checkout line with three pairs of panties hanging off miniature hangers. I try to strike up a conversation with the woman behind me. “Long line, no?” I comment. She mumbles something. I smile and decide I’ll talk to the man in front of me. That’s a mistake. The man won’t shut up. The line is a death march to the cashier. I learn about some battle in South Korea, the names of all his grandchildren, a bout of prostate cancer, and a cruise to Alaska he’s hoping to take before he dies. His wife was a saint, but she died young, as saints often do. My wife shows up and says hello to him. That’s a mistake.
small talk the cost of a bargain
About the Author
Bob Lucky is the author most recently of My Thology: Not Always True But Always Truth (Cyberwit, 2019) and the chapbook Conversation Starters in a Language No One Speaks (SurVision Books, 2018), which was a winner of the James Tate Poetry Prize in 2018. Lucky lives in Portugal, where he is working his way through all the regional cheeses and wines.