Henry Crawford, 12/30/2019

Current Occupation: Software Engineer
Former Occupation: Lawyer
Contact Information: Henry Crawford lives and writes in the Washington, DC area. A native New Yorker, Henry received a BA in Philosophy from Queens College and a JD from the George Washington University. He is a software engineer who has practiced law, worked in the garment district in New York and began his work life as a factory hand in a Queens laminating shop.

 

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Short Story Writer at the MVA

 

It was his first day of school

and Roscoe Weatherby was becoming boring

I had clocked in two hours ago

and despite all the free coffee on this job

I had written nothing to feed

the short story machine they set up

at Motor Vehicles for people

waiting in line

so I turned Roscoe into a baby kangaroo

unhappy with life in a kangaroo pouch

but that approach lacked a cast

of well-developed characters

so I renamed Roscoe “Russ”

the lead teenager in a haunted  house story

along with Vicky, Amber and  good natured Joel

but just then

the project manager messages me

to say the MVA needs the story before lunch

and they’re cracking down on clichés

so I’d better watch out

or I’ll be back driving Uber cars

and I tell him I get it

so its back to work on Roscoe

who’s now attending the double funeral

of his parents

who poisoned themselves

eating uncooked fish at his bar mitzvah

setting him off on a journey of self-discovery

but first he needs a driver’s license

so he appears at the MVA

and selects The Story of Roscoe

from the short story machine

and it comes out on a long twisted sheet

of thermal paper

something like a plot-driven Target receipt

which he immediately tosses away

asking himself the question

how do these people

come up with this stuff?