Middle School Fable. By Tobi Alfier

Once there was a gray van

with a gray dog inside

sitting in the driver’s seat.

When the owner came out

he was also gray.  Hair to shirt

to shoes, demeanor to match.

He was a music teacher

in his daytime life, the color

kicked out of him by the time

school was over.  A scotch

in a quiet place, his fingers

drumming rhythms on the bar,

his dog patiently guarding

the clarinet, flute and bassoon

in the back seat, both of them

wishing to dream impossible

rainbows.

Tobi Alfier is a multiple Pushcart nominee and multiple Best of the Net nominee. Both “Slices of Alice & Other Character Studies” and a reprint of “Sanity Among the Wildflowers” were published by Cholla Needles Press. She is co-editor of San Pedro River Review (www.bluehorsepress.com).