A DAY IN THE CITY

In a city park ashy man animals on rotisserie benches turn over in the sun with their flesh roasting like discarded KFC chicken wings at a dysfunctional family picnic and rise up as dirty phoenixes to ask the pretty office girls in running shoes for cigarettes and nickels.

They flash Indian corn teeth and retreat like shy carnivores in greasefried pants into sanctuary restrooms, salivate at the prospect of devouring the half-eaten Whoppers that fall onto refuse municipal plates.

When they conquer and divide their sustenance up in their bottomfeeder beds of contentment they don't notice the young women returning to their Hondas, whispering and staring, because they are too busy laying down with bottles of Thunderbird in anticipation of that night's starry sky.

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John V. Haynes is a free-lance writer and photographer based for the moment in Cincinnati, Ohio.

His work has previously appeared in a number of literary journals including In Posse Review on WebdelSol, Samsara Quarterly, Outsider Ink, Sendecki.com, Spoken War, Poethia, Poetry Magazine.com, and Comrades Magazine. It is also forthcoming in several others including Thunder Sandwich, NetAuthor/E2K, and Snow Monkey.

His work will also be included in the forthcoming anthology "Generation X: In Our Own Words, Vol. 4.," which is due out this spring from MWE Publishing. Currently he is working on several projects including his first novel, "An American Revolution," which is due out in the winter of 2002-2003. You can reach him at jvhii@mail2Artist.com.

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