Fourteenth Story

Once upon a train of thought, you see,
a person often rides it ’til the end,
enduring on the way a twist or three,
content to go wherever the track might wend.
But sometimes turns will send one ’round the bend,
and so it was with X, who’d had enough
of puzzles, hints, and all mysterious stuff.

He’d already learned of parents and a brother
he never knew he had, and would never know—
three family members lost, and now another
who might get tossed atop his heap of woe.
He found himself at odds with G.I. Joe:
only a dope would swallow all that prattle
that knowing something wins you half a battle.

“Not knowing keeps you out of the line of fire,”
he thought as he was heading toward the street,
“and Y sells more baloney than Oscar Mayer.”
So when, on his departure, his eye did meet
another note, did Xavier skip a beat?
Indeed he didn’t! No, he ran right past,
as hungry as a hippo and twice as fast.

But supper’s hard to come by with no bread—
free meals are widely judged as nonexistent—
and X’s last few beans had long been fed
to a starving artist by now in his memory distant,
so he had no answer for his body’s now persistent
dining demands and bellowings for beverage,
his empty pockets lending him no leverage.

Legend tells of three most lucky princes
who on their merry ways would tend to trip
upon the most delicious plums or quinces
of wisdom at quite an amazing clip.
Now X made like a Prince of Serendip,
in that he found a twenty-dollar bill
just lying on the pavement, as one will.

Itching to convert his newfound cash
to wholesome goods nutritious and delicious,
X dodged a slowly-moving Philly Phlash
and had his eye caught; plates of tasty fishes
reeled him in. His tummy’s repetitious
hurly-burly shushed before the gleamy,
glisteny globs of superfine sashimi.

Soon parted from his earlier lucky find,
he grabbed some grub and slid into a booth—
he chomped until he felt a jolt and grind
that told him something happened to his tooth.
“I think it…” X said, “Yeth, I think ith looth.”
Just then he spotted Y and dropped his jaw.
“It couldn’t be, but thtill, I thwore I thaw…”

[19:00 / supping / rhyme royal / teeth / via rex / Rittenhouse Square]