Four Scenarios
Each Sunday as I have my weekly breakfast out
I see a titleless mime play
with unknown actors.
The stage is the next booth
with a first act scene;
always the same.
Father and child
together for Sunday breakfast
begging for a story line for the audience.
Each week there is a different child actor
and the bewildered father
yo-yos in age and size.
Jake tries to help his daughter
with her whippedcream- topped blueberry hotcakes
on his Sunday visitation day.
The chosen diet
is for rapport and not
what the book he has not read suggests.
Or maybe his name is Todd
and mother is resting well
with the new baby.
Or maybe his name is Ned
and this is part of a wonderful gift
for mother to sleep in luxurious silence.
His name might even be widower John
wondering how he is going to raise
this child without a mother.
It is a mime play so as the audience we get
to select the story line
and mind- wander off on each.
Do not let the eggs get cold
consider the various plots
on the drive home.
But as you pass the empty stage
look to see if the
real play is on the back of a napkin.
The four million New York City lights of O'Henry
indicated four million stories
how many breakfasts mime plays are there?
Doug Minnis May 16, 2011