Janet Flash: Day One

by Michael Seese

If you were here last week, you read that Janet Reid crafted a contest specifically to foil her word-play nemesis, Steve Forti. His entry, clearly, shot her out of the sky. So what did she do this week?

After being summarily vanquished last week, you'd think I'd retire from the field.

But NO!

So we were tasked with putting the following words:

pogo
slugo
fargo
get-go **
logo

into a 100-word piece.

I really wanted to come up with something that played with the words like a previous one I wrote, "Against The Lawn." But an opening line I could not resist entered my head, and "Day One" fell out of my fingers.


The GetGo 99-cent breakfast burrito trampolining in my gut threatened to pogo back up to the pavement. The super-sized slug of vodka fortifying the Slush Puppie didn't help. I trudged onward, officeward, my wake reeking of regret. Inexplicably, my shoes had gained a few pounds since last night. Beneath them, the sidewalk sighed, saddled with the weight of my world.

I arrived to find the switchboard lit up like the heavens, and pushed the button blinking the loudest. A shaky voice beseeched.

“Hello? God?”

A far gone conclusion. My first day on the job would be less than divine.


As my friend Bill used to say, "Don't stand too near me. He might just send one lightning bolt to get both of us."


** We'll have to see how it goes, as after I had copied the word list, she added  "Yes, you need the hyphen."