Pons Asinorum (Flash Fiction) by John A. Ward

Pons Asinorum
by John A. Ward

I am waiting for a table in the atrium of Ristorante Reverie. There is a young man with curly black hair talking on the public phone. He has the breathless desperation of lust in his eyes.

"Yes, two of them. One is heavy-set and the other is skinny. I'm interested in the heavy-set one."

What a pal, saving the skinny girl for his friend. I want to take him under my wing and explain. The attributes heavy-set and skinny do not conjure images of carnal delights in the mind's eye. Women are voluptuous or svelte. They are all beautiful.
Put me between a voluptuous and a svelte woman and I don't know which way to turn. There is a parable about an ass, not round and pink, a gray one that eats grass. It is placed between oats and alfalfa and cannot decide. I am that ass. I have known many women and in the end, it is not whether they are a Renoir or a Modigliani in the nude. It is how they are beneath the skin and how it radiates from that source.
I do not admonish and enlighten him. I just wait until he hangs up and leaves to wander alone in the darkness, a "no sale" frown on his countenance, and I check the coin box to see if he has left any change. What good will it do either of us for me to explain the ways of goddesses to such as him?

Author bio:

John A. Ward was born on Staten Island, attended Wagner College in the early 60's, sold his first poem to Leatherneck magazine, and became a scientist. He is now in San Antonio running, writing and living with his dance partner. He has published in Doorknobs & Bodypaint, Clockwise Cat, Apollo’s Lyre, Toasted Cheese, Green Tricycle, Alighted Ezine, Lit Bits, Cenotaph Pocket Edition, The San Antonio Express-News, Antithesis Common, Wild Child, Holy Cuspidor, Idlewheel, Sentence, Sun Poetic Times, Byline, Quirk, ken*again, R-KV-R-Y, The Smoking Poet, Long Story Short, Cautionary Tale and The Rose & Thorn. Links to his work can be found at Dancing Fool.