Stick like Pancho

Rides on a stick figure donkey

both black against an orange background

with Don Quixote stumbling

along on brave Rocinante,

truly as horse with no name

and yet one can imagine Pancho

wishing for a good meal at the inn

instead of a sound beating.

All this on the wall, on a great canvas

in a dinner in Meridian, Mississippi

a favorite layover and lunch

of veal cutlet and French fries.

Lucy’s Red Ball Dinner,

attached to a motel,

closed before my time,

but there was still an empty concrete

swimming pool and a pretty but rusty

young girl on a sign, prepared to dive

in with her close fitting bathing cap.

I remember the painting and the sign,

but I don’t remember much of the veal cutlet,

 though I know I ordered it

everywhere too fancy

to order a fish sandwich.