His name is Wheels.
I don’t know how or where he got his name.
He’s the drink slinger at the local watering hole.
His sideburns go all the way to his chin.
Their names are Dutchie, Mousey, Gomzee,
Hair Bear, G-Man, Carbo, and Eff-Oh.
He’s watched them look for answers
on the tips of their stir sticks,
in the melt of their ice,
in the foam spilling over the edge
of their dark lagers.
He’s watched them since I was 16,
when everyone thought I was 18,
back when somebody else owned the bar.
Today I’m 48 and the other day
Wheels told Fuel Oil Phil
he thinks the real answers
are in the baskets of peanuts
they have to shell themselves.
A three-time winner of the Wisconsin Regional Writer’s Jade Ring, Julie Eger’s work appears in Fictive Dream, Flash Fiction for Flash Memory, Runcible Spoon, Fifty Word Stories, the Cadence Poetry Anthology, Inner Circle Writers’ Magazine, Your Daily Poem, Spillwords and Potato Soup Journal. She lives in Wisconsin with her husband and a black Golden Doodle. You can connect with Julie at https://julieceger.wordpress.com/.
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A similar version of “Stumbled Upon Answers” first appeared in a print copy of Bar Code - an anthology, published by Little Eagle Press in 2008 where all rights immediately revert to individual artists and authors.
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