Duct Tape
You bring a roll of duct tape on your next flight. Just in case a passenger randomly goes berserk and needs restraint. As you wait for takeoff, you fondly remember how duct tape was originally called “duck tape” in 1899, not to repair broken ducks, but because it was made of cotton duck, a kind of versatile canvas.
Smiling at the duct tape in your canvas backpack, you reminisce about the good old days when duct tape was known as “the handyman’s secret weapon,” cherished for its ability to fix anything: boats, bridges, airplanes….
You had avoided airplanes since the pandemic began. The flight crew lollygags near the cockpit. Their masks sag below their greasy snouts. They look ready for happy hour. The passengers stink. Next to you, Moby is about to blow up at the small fry kicking his seat. Santa Claus records them with his phone. You grip the duct tape in your talons. Soon, you will go viral.
Sharon Suzuki-Martinez won the Washington Prize for her latest book, The Loneliest Whale Blues (The Word Works, 2022), and the MVP Prize for her first book, The Way of All Flux (New Rivers Press, 2012). Her micro-chapbook is A Glimpse of Birds over O’odham Land (Rinky Dink Press, 2021). (SharonSuzukiMartinez.com)