Epiphany in a Parking Lot

It didn’t even occur to me that I was sick the past few days, as I slept a great deal and spent the waking periods in physical discomfort. Preceding all of this were a couple of unusual events: first, I cleaned house like mad in a late spring-cleaning frenzy, and second, I had two incidents of intense nausea. The latter I attributed to low blood sugar and the former I blamed for the ensuing physical discomfort, although what house-cleaning has to do with gastrointestinal distress, I don’t have a clue.

Then Wednesday evening, a friend mentioned her husband had been laid low by some sort of contagious bug. A friend of his had suffered from it earlier and apparently passed it on. I asked what the symptoms were and learned they were precisely what I was experiencing.

I guess I’ve been sick. But I seem to have slept as much as my body can take for now, so I tackled a poem that I’ve been wanting to post here, about an epiphany I had in a parking lot recently. With a little whack, whack, it has become a tale told in 55 words, as required by the Friday Flash 55 club hosted by the world-renowned G-Man, Mr. Knowitall Himself. Hie thee over there to see how succinctly people can tell stories.

The sign on the van
DEL MONTE MEAT CO.
with its giant capital M on MEAT
like a shark’s yawning mouth

made me remember how badly
you wanted to devour me
on our first date

and there at the Mobil gas station
I realized I escaped
in the nick of time
oh so long ago

About the photo: Just an odd sculpture I saw on my trek to Northern California last month.