TODAY'S SPECIAL Mr. Cockroach skitters between the jukebox And the spicy mustard colored drapes Sleet is stinging the plate glass window Lucky I stole the last parking place Bacon grease coats the ceiling Counters spooked from the CRASH OF TWENTY NINE Where Cobra Joe's latest pawn shop princess Rests her arms that are thin as a pantomime I overhear their conversation Spun with all the wit and charm Of a TV preacher in your pocket And it's too late to pull the fire alarm. Joe uncoils in the corner Figures it's due time he trade her in He orders coffee black as Christmas Eve With a side order of sin. I say I'll have the usual Linda pops her top button as she Giggles, "Wait till I get off." Takes a Detroit drag off a Salem one hundred The diner trembles with the echoes of her tombstone cough Sherman "The Stingwray Albertson" Brags on his new used Corvette Said he wrote a letter to the PRESIDENT! His extended benefits haven't kicked in yet I "admire" Fat Judy in horror As she devours her sunny side ups Seems she chose to scrape her makeup Off the orphaned floor of a U-haul truck There's Kevin, who last seen his little girls When they made the Ten o'clock news The year they made runner up in the State Championship A year after the abuse My mouth begins to salivate As linda plops her HOT CAKES down I baptize them with sticky maple ( And ask the girls) She has the best in town Roy Orbison's still crying When Dumpster Dan spills "glowingly" through the door Linda states the policy "I ain't serving you no more." Unkempt is the cleanest word To explain what's before my eyes They say he's been diving the alleys For pizza crusts and half Moon Pies Sausages are sizzling Same with the St. Louis Blues His shirt is stuffed with Wall Street Journals The sports pages are his shoes He catches my gaze in the milkshake mixer Disbelief engraved into shiny chrome My breakfast tastes like cancer as he speaks "Brother, can you spare a home?" So, if you're cruisin' through Overland Missouri And you come to The Fork In The Road Entice Linda to serve up her hot cakes And bundle up! 'Cause baby, We can all get cold.
