The Better Part of Valor

“I am robbing you,” the robber softly said,
his note a cipher to the cashier, wisp
of an impulse sketched in soft pencil,
paper rumpled soft like flannel. Sh.
“I am robbing you,” he said, wavering
fuzzy on the closed circuit screen.
No sound. No overt threat.
The cashier might have slipped him
her own note: “No, you’re not.”
Instead, she handed over soft bills
and crisp. He went his way and after,
the manager said, “I’m sorry”
to the waiting customers.
“We must close now. We have
been robbed.” 

          Go gently. Sh.
Go home, you seekers of snack foods
and cigarettes, and think about what
has happened and what has not.
You, sir, on your night-shift break—
put down your sandwich and go.
There is no supper for you here.
Quiet has stolen into this place—
nothing further to retail tonight.
Robbery at Convenience Store

© Cleveland Wall

A co-worker of mine was actually in this shop at the time of the robbery and didn't know about it until after the robber had left!

Cleveland Wall lives in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA, where she routinely refrains from robbery. She is a recent resident poet at Lehigh Valley Vanguard.

Hydrangea Rage

Her hydrangea overhangs his garden,
blocks the sun from his tomato plants.
So he prunes the offending shrub and she
is enraged, calls him a menace—
amongst other, unmentionable things.
She is 87 years old, like Mildred,
who, when I urge her to do
the prescribed voice exercises,
tells me to fuck off, but doesn’t mean it.
Saturday afternoon with Mildred,
Ms. Hydrangea’s story crops up
on public radio news trivia. The incident
made national news in Britain. The neighbors
say they are fed up with the shrubbery
of ill-mannered pensioners
barging big, old-fashioned, blue heads
into other people's gardens, stealing
the very sunlight. Surely, they say,
those hydrangeas had it coming.

© Cleveland Wall

Grandmother in court after going potty because a neighbour trimmed her plant
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Cleveland Wall is a poet, actor, and mail artist from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Her work has appeared in Schuylkill Valley Journal, Möbius magazine, and online in New Purlieu Review. Twitter: @clevelandwall