Paul Mendoza

The Story Of Ted The Poor

“For the medal like trees!”

Was the battle cry

for Ted and the Lonely Spades.

Now they must find a golden pine,

or at least a bronze-tinted

redwood spruce. A bankrupt man,

Ted needed those special trees

To finance his utopius bellus,

and his gang’s stash of

closet bulbs for the secret

carrots that Ted and the Spades

love to use for their dinner,

with the leftovers forming the base

of their television set. Yet Ted fears

the narrow woods, because he was timid.

But he holds a chainsaw between his legs.

Ted smiles as he pulls the starter cord,

yet he has forgotten the blade is so near him.