My Cardboard Balcony

Pie-rates by Belinda Roddie Three pirates eat blackberry pie on their half-capsized ship near a furnished lanai. One sticks a sticky thumb into the crust and cries, "What a sweet little sight for my remaining sore eye!"

"I wish to remain anonymous," said the person behind the curtain. "Do you also wish for solitude?" the interviewer asked just to be certain. "To be anonymous is to live in solitude," the person said. "I'll be plenty happy when everyone else is gone so I can be alone when I'm dead." "But there are ghosts to follow you in the afterlife," the interviewer objected. "Well, in that case," said the stranger, "I ought to be the only one resurrected."