Scott Wiggerman

The Draw of the Cool

I never considered the severity of her vision, only the look of the black eyepatch worn by my aunt in the city. Like Dick Tracy and Basil St. John in the Sunday comics. Or even Bazooka Joe. I didn’t know why they wore eyepatches either. I saw only a look in the same way I envied Daniel Boone’s coonskin cap, or that beanie worn on Beany and Cecil. Things I never owned, only wanted. My aunt was a tough cookie who dangled her cigarettes like Natasha on Rocky and Bullwinkle, who also wore an eyepatch. A real femme fatale before I knew the term.

round rimless glasses
like hippies later wore
thick black frames
the only option for boys
in my small town

---

About the Author

Scott Wiggerman, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, is a member of the Texas Institute of Letters. He has published hundreds of Japanese-form poems, two of which have been selected for the annual Red Moon anthologies of best English-language haiku. He co-edited the 2017 Haiku North America anthology, Earthsigns.

---