‘PEZ Collector’ & Collected Works
Allen Forrest is a painter and cartoonist, winner of the Leslie Jacoby Honor for Art at San Jose State University's Reed Magazine, his Bel Red landscape paintings are in the Bellevue College Foundation's art collection. He lives in Vancouver, BC, Canada.
PEZ Collector
Religious patrons —
Temples, Churches,
Mosques.
Inhabitants of a whole
arranged in favoritism.
Accumulating sins.
Coupons for blessings.
Confessionals clicking
out exoneration from a
bottomless PEZ dispenser.
Thoroughly sorted —
Sugar veiled prescriptions
doled out to the righteous
as pardons delivered to
glutinous tongues.
While sacreligious suits
escort the wicked through stained glass doors. Welcome to God’s inferno.
You Want a War Poem
Which war are we talking?
My Great Grandfather was
drafted during World War Two.
Never committing to bravery.
Instead receiving an 18th
birthday card with orders
stamped inside.
Commanded to a wasteland
of broken bodies.
A janitor — hired to sweep up
half exhumed organs, while tossing the odd and ends into mixed-part coffins.
I wonder if this is it?
Maybe —
My Grandfathers: Korean and Vietnam
Leaving their families willingly
not without deathbed regrets.
Proud Americans — Sacrifice themselves. Proud Fathers — Sacrifice for their children
My three Uncles and own Father; Floating somewhere in the Gulf.
Escaping my first steps
and my little cousins’
birthday parties.
There were domestic wars
they were better suited for.
Tell me which one you want.
I have plenty of my own.
I spent years foiling inherited circumstances. Negotiating which portions of self are disposable.
Unintended enemies — matching uniforms docked at home port.
Insignia fading at the threat of losing it all. Implicated by a predator’s keeper.
SITREP
Homosexual Behavior
J. Mcclure
Medals crooked
ready to fall.
Unwilling to attend another briefing
where I’m muted by extortion.
Is this the war you wanted?
I didn’t think so.
$170.25
Free bleeding down the aisles.
Feminine products cost more than steak.
Belly ferociously growling
at the price of cereal.
A stranger with fat
pockets flashes disdain.
Unworthy — read between his lash lines. Announcing to the butcher:
I’ll take five pounds of prime rib
That’ll be one-seventy- twenty- five Cheaper here he smiles.
My blood unwelcomed
at this establishment.
My card swipes just the same.
Two bags in my trunk.
Driving off my phone buzzes.
Account Notification:
one-seventy
twenty-five
remains.
My Ex, the Psychic: An Honest Review
Considering abilities alone,
I would have given her five stars. Her aptitude, for crafting futures — Unremarkable!
If your searching for a girlfriend who values customer care.
I would suggest a less avoidant type.
It does not seem empathy is considered as an option at this residence.
Tactless, I’m certain.
The fee required, leaves one to question. Was I taken advantage of at this price?
No Call, No Show
My dad casually left his job.
Walked out for some cigarettes and the neighbor.
Two underage employees,
an assistant manager paid under the table; left to clean up the boss's mess.
Brittany Richter is a poet and writer from Mississippi, where she learned early how silence can speak louder than words.
