Silver stools line up along the counter like chorus dancers about to spin. Enter Betty and Jules to take them for a twirl on seats red as sweet- heart candy. Jack the soda jerk, swipes his towel at their elbows propped, hands hooked, smiles and takes his pen, "What'll you have America in 1941? Skyscraper Sundae, Adam and Eve on a Raft, Pig Between Two Sheets, "V" for victory at all costs, innocence fizzing in the glass?" "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" floods the juke. The walls blaze yellow as the hot summer day. No one they know has gone to war. Betty has not yet delivered their son while Jules learns to drop bombs. Two straws in a nickel Coke. Jack waves so long. Outside the diner their Buick grins—all its chrome teeth shining.
Bonnie Maurer earned an MFA in poetry from Indiana
University. She is the author of four small-press chapbooks: Reconfigured (Finishing Line Press, 2009); Ms. Lily Jane
Babbitt Before the Ten O'clock Bus from Memphis Ran Over Her (Raintree Press and Ink Press, 2nd edition); Old
37: The Mason Cows (Barnwood Press); and Bloodletting:
A Ritual Poem for Women's Voices (Ink Press).She has poems forthcoming in War
Literature & the Arts, and in an
anthology: And Know This
Place: Poetry of Indiana.
Maurer has conducted creative writing/healing workshops for
the homeless in recovery, for the HIV+/AIDS affected/infected population and
for cancer patients at The Wellness Center.She grew up in Indianapolis where she continues to live and
work as a poet for Young Audiences of Indiana, as a copy editor for the
Indianapolis Business Journal, and as an Ai Chi (aquatic flowing energy)
instructor.
