Skeletons in the Waffle House
If you get there and the Waffle House is closed? That's really bad...
— Craig Fugate, Former Head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency
When the trick or treating is over,
we end up here, as we usually do
after a work shift, a dance, a date.
It’s comforting to know exactly
what we’re going to get, no matter
who we are at the moment, a skeleton,
ghost, jilted lover, single parent.
The staff doesn’t care. They’ve seen it all
year after year. The faces and bodies
and costumes change; the coffee doesn’t.
So, when we go towards the light, perhaps
we shouldn’t be surprised if we discover
it’s a Waffle House sign, the first place
to open after an emergency or disaster.
About the Author: A faculty member at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Joseph Mills has published several collections of poetry, most recently “Bodies in Motion: Poems About Dance.”
Image Credit: Dvortygirl “Closeup of a homemade waffle” Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0
As It Ought To Be 
