Lucky Luck

Yes, it certainly was
my father’s good
fortune to be drinking
away the afternoon
beside the famous Hawaiian
TV star, while I
sat there on Lucky’s fat
lap, tugging his massive aloha
shirt, twiddling my thumbs,
and pulling his buttons,
squinting through the haze
at the blaze of their Lucky
Strikes, while they chug-
a-lugged.

So then, What luck!
twenty-five years later,
to be served by a waiter
in California, in an Italian
restaurant, when the tab
with his signature revealed
he must certainly be Lucky
Luck’s son. Youngest
son, he corrected
then smiled with immense
belief when I told him
I once sat upon
his father’s lap
in a dark bar in Waikiki,
a quarter century back—

It was a sad
and hospitable smile.

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Susan Kelly-DeWitt | Mudlark No. 33
Contents | Gorgeous George in Honolulu