A Fistful of Cake

Loaded with hawks’ cries and horses’ huffs
Ennio Morricone’s score wails
as the camera narrows on cakeslingers’ squints.
Eli Wallach’s, Clint Eastwood’s, and Lee Van Cleef’s
hands tremble near leather holsters.
Eastwood chews the cheroot
clamped in his jaw.
A twitch,
fusillade of thrown pastry,
and chest dripping in strawberry jam
Lee Van Cleef tumbles into an open grave

Hundreds of Jon Wesick’s poems and stories have appeared in journals such as the I-70 Review, New Verse News, Paterson Literary Review, and Unlikely Stories. He is a regional editor of the San Diego Poetry Annual and host of the Gelato East Fiction Open Mic as well as the NAV Arts poetry reading. His latest short story collection is Saint John the Blasphemer. He lives in Manchester, New Hampshire and longs for gene editing to bring giant wombats back from extinction. http://jonwesick.com