Make A Wish

Dark circles, weary bones, and incoherent thoughts.

An innocent mistake so many doctors experience,

When you give too much, you leave yourself exposed.

Sniffing out their prey with the tenacity of a bloodhound,

The scoundrel's not-so-innocuous small talk infiltrates his psyche.

Promises of a higher power and wish fulfillment cast him under their spell.

An unbelievable, unthinkable, unfathomable scheme.

The appearance of an apparition,

A tarnished gold-plated lamp from the antique store trash heap,

A pathetic rejected Halloween costume, blue-face, caravan pants, curly wooden clogs.

He fell for it.

His horn rim spectacles were so caked over

With the mud of his unfulfilled hopes and dreams.

Because the doctor was all too willing to see exactly what they wanted him to see. 

It was all in his grasp.

The gentle circular massaging of the lamp over and over, 

Left residue on his hands

And an empty wallet.

These apparitions don’t take credit cards.

The genie was out of the bottle.

The forlorn victim having paid a dear price,

Both in cold hard cash and in his own embarrassment.

But worse, he is no closer to having his dreams fulfilled.

From Boundless: The Anthology of the Rio Grande Valley International Poetry Festival