Nancy Five and Nickel Joe

   by Terry Blanchard

Chicago's Nancy Five 
could put a sixteen penny
cement coat nail
completely into her nose
and while with Nancy
Nickel Joe never 
had to buy a beer.
Love not a heart but a pentagon
The carny carried them along
for their skills
their love like a skee-ball
fed with burgers and beer
screwball dreams by number.

Up went the tents
in Clearwater where Nancy
met Roy the tiger-tamer
and despite a non-committal Nickel
Joe went nuts
it flipped his love node
backwards and after fifty-five
beers over fifty-five hours
he went home to Jersey, married, 
raised a family and enjoys a career
in tire repair, uninsured.

Nancy sells squirrel-ride
tickets and keeps her life
clean, unfettered and refuses
to talk about the past.