Sunflower

Like a foul-tempered baseball manager

observing the bumbles of his hapless nine,

I obsessively ate sunflower seeds.

Chewing and spitting. Spitting and chewing.

In winter, as I walked home from college,

roughed up by the hilarious comments

about my appearance, my strategy

was soon limited to ‘eat lots of seeds.’

Of course, it didn’t help I had the pride

of Richard II. It didn’t help I switched

from sunflower seeds to popcorn chicken

and from popcorn chicken to popcorn steak.

I didn’t need another reviewer

who hated ‘frivolity’ to tell me

I was losing all Bunyon Review cred,

and that all things from Kansas made him sick.