The Leather Tassels on Them
Gordon Johnson is an actuary. By day he plies his
conservative trade assessing and projecting financial
risks from natural catastrophes, mortality, and
morbidity. He wears the modern equivalent of the gray
flannel suit: a blue blazer, cornflower blue
button-down collar shirt, and pressed khaki pants. Oh,
and he also wears dress shoes with the leather tassels
on them. He is predictable. Arrives at 8:00 a.m.,
departs at 5:00 p.m. In the evening, he locks himself
into his home office where he researches and studies
imps, pucks, sprites and other fairies and
mythological creatures. His family, neighbors,
co-workers and clients have no idea. He is secretive,
just like the mythic beings he studies. Yet, in the
scholarly community of mythologists, the name of
Gordon Johnson is renown. Even though he recently
completed an exhaustive definitive analysis of the
leszi – a woodland spirit in Slavic mythology who
protects wild animals and forests, he is best known
for his controversial treatise from 1989 Not All
that is Devilish is from the Devil.
30 years in –
the gold watch
requires a battery
* Jeffrey Winke is a haiku/haibun poet and public relations counselor. Recent publications include That Smirking Face, a haiku-art broadside collaboration with Matt Cipov (Milwaukee: Distant Thunder Press, 2008) and PR Idea Book: 50 Proven Tools That Really Work (Denver: Outskirts Press, 2006). www.jeffwinke.com
