Wells Burgess

Sonnet on an Old Comic Strip

Volume 16:1, Winter 2015
The Sonnet Issue

Sonnet on an Old Comic Strip

Kayo Mullins

No bucks, but lots of moxie, mixed with gump-
tion, Kayo calls the tune. This grown-up tot
(suspenders, derby hat) has one sweet spot
for sleep: a dresser drawer in a room on Wump
Street. Trouble? Brother Moon will save his rump.
What’s not to like? I tried to make a cot
in my dresser. No dice; I’d grown a lot.
We make a trade: I join the strip; he jumps
to Market Street and joins the Irish mob.
At first, it’s going good. He’s making time
with chorus girls and skimming loan-shark deals.
Times change. He orders up a muscle job
on Big Al’s boys. They send a Valentine.
Now Kayo sleeps in a cabinet of steel.

 

Wells Burgess is retired and lives in Arlington, VA. He studied Advanced Form and Meter in the Masters Writing Program at Johns Hopkins, where he took the degree in 2011. He has had sonnets published in The Edge City Review and Light, and is working on a book manuscript of sonnets in both traditional and free verse forms.