The Miniature Angel
A boy went to his father with a cardboard box. His father was busy sitting at the kitchen table, smoking a pipe, wondering if the day would surprise as much as last night’s fortune cookie.
“I have something to show you,” the boy said. Then he opened the box and showed a miniature angel stuck beneath a stick.
“What’s this? How did you get this?” the father asked.
“It’s a miniature angel I caught in a shoebox trap. Angels can’t escape from or resist cardboard.”
“What are you going to do with him?”
“I’m going to keep him beneath my bed until he’s told me all of his secrets. I’ll give him a nightlight and a honey jar so that the shoebox is a lot like home.”
The Largest Couch
There once was a couch so large it held three towns from end to end. Farmers drove their carriages across and waved at one another if they came close enough. Hikers slept in shade among velvet slopes and studded indentions. The sun was an expectation the people and the roosters knew. Choirs spent their days learning new hymns to sing beneath the late-night moon. Old hymns were recycled, along with old white pillows and old, old blankets. New stuffing was always needed. No one had to be asked to give.
The New Cat
There was once a little girl who ran into the living room and exclaimed to her parents, “I’m not your little girl anymore! Now I am your fluffy cat.” “That’s too bad. I don’t like cats,” the father said. “I’m allergic to cats,” said the mother. Then she sneezed a dozen times. “We are going to have to find someone else to take her in. We can’t have all this sneezing. No we can’t. Your eyes are already puffy and red,” the father said as he looked at the mother. “What about the old lady in the gingerbread house?” said the mother between sneezes. “Yes,” replied the father. “She always has cats outside on her fence and in her driveway and on her front porch steps.” Then the mother and the father leaned their heads against one another and tried to remember the old lady’s name.
The New Bird
There was once a little girl who dreamed she was a bird.
When her mother came to wake her she had already built a sleep nest on her bookshelf. It was made of twigs and licorice wrappers and the shreds of old blue cotton pajamas.
The mother looked at the nest and said, “Now this is mess. These twigs and wrappers won’t do. Thank goodness there are no eggs in here. One bird is enough for a single woman. I’ve got a career and there are many sunsets to think over.”
The Woman in the Gingerbread House
There once was a woman with 100 children and each had the name of a flower. She was a busy woman. She was, oh yes, busy. There were soups to cook, teeth to count, a postman to gossip with, and carrots and potatoes to plant and to harvest. There was something to do as long as the sun shined, which it did dimly to brightly most hours.
After dinner, a lucky child pointed at that night’s picture from Da Vinci’s Anatomy. The mother began a bedtime story. So the children learned about the Apes of the Tendons, the Fairies of the Liver, the Mole Women of Ear Canals, and the Very Testicle Cowboys.
Mike James makes his home outside Nashville, Tennessee. He has published in numerous magazines, large and small, throughout the country. His many poetry collections include: Leftover Distances (Luchador), Parades (Alien Buddha), Jumping Drawbridges in Technicolor (Blue Horse), and Crows in the Jukebox (Bottom Dog.) He has received multiple Pushcart and Best of the Net nominations.
