Richard Luftig is a professor of educational psychology and special education at Miami University in Ohio. He is a recipient of the Cincinnati Post-Corbett Foundation Award for Literature and a semi finalist for the Emily Dickinson Society Award. His poems have appeared in numerous literary journals in the United States (including Third Wednesday) and internationally in Japan, Canada, Australia, Europe, Thailand, Hong Kong and India. One of his published poems was nominated for the 2012 Pushcart Poetry Prize.
Summer 2012
Table of Contents - Vol. VIII, No. 2
Poetry Fiction Translations Reviews
Richard Luftig
I’m telling you, some people
are dumber than rocks.
Take Maxine, for example.
that girl is so naïve
she’d believe it if someone
told her they’ve taken the word
gullible out of the dictionary.
(Dear, I’ll take another cup of coffee when you get the chance.)
So yesterday, she and I drove
the fifty miles to Costco
in Cincinnati—where by the way
she filled up three full shopping carts
all by herself—and we’re out
in the parking lot when this
(Honey, could we get the check?)
obvious homeless guy accosts
us and gives her a sob story about
how he has a flat tire and would she
give him some money to get
it fixed. So right there she reaches
for her wallet, where he might
grab it at any moment, and seeing
(No please, this lunch is on me. Well, at least let me pay half.)
that she doesn’t have any dollar bills,
she writes the guy a personal check!
The only thing is; please
don’t tell Maxine I told you
all this. She’d be madder than
a hornet, and after all, she really is
my best friend in the world.
© Richard Luftig
