Dinette Set
/Kenneth Pobo
My husband Dulcet and I go shopping
for a dinette set. I want to win one on
Let’s Make A Deal. I can make a crazy outfit,
but Dulcet doesn’t do crazy outfits. He doesn’t
like outfits at all, says life is a pressed pair
of pants, shirt tucked in. It works for him.
Sometimes I pull the shirt out of his pants
and cluck like a hen. He gets irritated
until I put on a rerun of The Nanny.
We’ve been married for fifteen years.
Maybe in our eighties we still won’t have
a new dinette set. The sun will butter us
even if we’ve gone stale, the finish line
getting clearer as we turn up the sound—
that Nanny Fine, we laugh at the same jokes,
repeat them. Then the show’s over.
Author’s note: I like to write character poems and Dulcet Tones is who I am working on now. The title, “Dinette Set,” came about by listening to a group from the early 80s called The Dynette Set.
Kenneth Pobo is the author of twenty-one chapbooks and nine full-length collections. Recent books include Bend of Quiet (Blue Light Press), Loplop in a Red City (Circling Rivers), and Uneven Steven (Assure Press). Opening is forthcoming from Rectos Y Versos Editions. Lavender Fire, Lavender Rose is forthcoming from Brick/House Books.
