Time Warp

Photo by RP Thomas

The ‘57

Tex may have been first to notice,

though the topic was debated

in Noble Coffee, that the old Fury

had recently reappeared in town.

The philologist Carl Hicks said

something that seemed profound—

to himself if not Harry Reems—that

curiosity is the trick of a mind sated

By decorous ambiguities. A Fury

with the driver dead, Hicks stated

with his usual air of confounding

obscurity, cannot be driven unless

Old Martha has risen from her grave

and given it a fill-up at Phil’s station.

Reems reached for the honey this

time, his mind chilled by the gravity

Of Carl’s oration. We should visit Phil,

Harry suggested, riven by the philologist’s

logic. Stirring his cupful, he looked

up at Talent’s town clock; it read 7:57.


TS