Parades

a kind of prose about fabulist parades

There’s always a parade of some kind or other passing by on any given day. Single file floats boasting neon rainbow colors, belching Roman candles and ferrying fairytale characters- the entire spectacle promising riches and rewards yet to come, but still just mere inches out of reach. 

I saw one this afternoon in my backyard while mowing the lawn. I stopped just long enough to watch the train of wishes pass by, just before the mower ran out of gas. On the back end of the last float, I witnessed Miss Beauty Queen french kissing a drunken clown. 

One time, while suffering in bumper to bumper expressway traffic, I almost hit a float carrying a giant, poppy seed unicorn. Good thing I had insurance. The unicorn didn’t stick around to provide an eye witness account of the near collision for my insurance company. 

I shrugged, after you’ve seen one parade, you’ve seen them all. Medicine show-snake oil promises

Feather fan stripper tease

All designed to make you pray on your knees. 

Every once in a while, the parades are accompanied by giant, airborne paper dragons, undulating in rhythm to pop tunes blared by high school marching bands. When I was a kid, it was easy to gaze up at popcorn shaped clouds and imagine all sorts of giant, mythical figures and animals. Stratospheric nursery rhymes. Now, it’s hard to see clouds at all for the multitude of blimps crowding the airspace, carrying flashing advertisements for pharmaceutical companies and face creams on their bloated sides. 

Parades come and go

All part of life’s show

Along the way, don’t forget to earn more dough. 

Author's Note

Momma told me there’d be days like this… and she was right, my momma. Critiques and comments expressly welcomed.

Reviews

[George Rockefeller]

I felt an unpredictable melancholy humor in your story. Got a chuckle from lines like: "...before the mower ran out of gas..." and "The unicorn didn’t stick around..."

I like your witty and descriptive writing style used in lines like "Medicine show-snake oil promises..." Definitely didn't see the last line coming, got a good laugh from it.

Is hard to make any suggestions because it's so good as it is. The only thing I can think of is that I want to see more of the contrast between your witty descriptions and a simple style from the last line; I think that's why the punch of that line (no pun intended) was so good.

[FlatDaddy]

Growing up in small Waco, Texas and a spattering of tiny towns, the only true parades I saw as a child were on TV, and I dismissed them as fantasies like "The Beverly Hillbillies." Granny rocking on a truck top was my convertible of blondes blowing kisses. Just stuff built from celluloid. I've still never seen any of the great ones, those with giant floating balloons and marching bands a mile long. I enjoyed the one you scrawled upon your page, though.
FD