by Richard Baldasty

SnakeIn shiny youth and dandy juvenescence, Mr. Young proves a cad, a slink, a prince of smooth deceit. Courts Miss Albright (her father buys banks) whilst sportive on the sly with Poupée, a crass lass, alas, a meme as dolly. Later—balding, fattening, retooling for Low T—he turns censorious, high virtuous, punctilious, impervious, troglodytic, pedantic, dogmatic, and fussy dark and twisty dour. Nothing becomes the man. A snake so remains, hat, gloves, and stick.

Richard Baldasty’s poetry and short prose have appeared in Pinyon, Epoch, and New Delta Review among other literary magazines. Recent publications online: fiction in AntipodeanSF, Dark Fire, Thick Jam, Café Irreal, Shuf Poetry, Burrow Press Review, Fickle Muses, Ray’s Road Review, Big Bridge, Gravel and Foliate Oak. Original work in collage is represented in private collections in California, New York, Montana, and Baldasty’s home state of Washington. His day job is garden design and maintenance (aka “yard boy”). Mr. Baldasty designed the parlor game Second Hand Celebrity only to see it wholly eclipsed by popularity of the similar but higher concept Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, even though he—Baldasty, not Bacon—is grandfather to Anya Lucia Jense, recently celebrated (among another million) when Notable Babies USA released its Second Quarter, 2013, report. He lives in Spokane, Twitter tweets @2kurtryder.