last day at the fair
they said it was the last day of the fair
and I’d miss the drownings that happened there
to help sell jacuzzis on payment plans
the cotton candy that looked like dad
or an approximation of a father from the employee
who said they’d lost theirs in the last town
the pig heads whose bones we’d search for on easter
years later
the balloons full of birds who’d lost the will to fly
or sometimes had no wings at all
those would deflate in the car ride home
and we’d place the mess
in front of an oscillating fan
letting the coffin of feathers and rubber
create a muffled lullaby
as the grand prize knocked quietly against the fan’s aluminum
we’d collect tickets from games of bloody knuckles
to a gasping speaker broadcasting an eddie money cover band
and redeem them for a vhs copy of our principle
getting fucked in the janitor’s closet
the photographs taken there would all come out black
like the oil slick left behind by the recreational vehicles
that dragged the perverse accumulation into the abandoned industrial lots
but if you looked close enough
you could see the grinning veneer of a television savior
as he was consumed by the flies under the midwest sun
which indicated another six months of winter
or the condemnation of us all
or neither
thank you itransport4u 😤
collected for $42,069 usd on may 26, 2026
