MILLION-DOLLAR DOUGHNUTS / by Joe Castorino

 

Year in and year out she went to

Million-Dollar Doughnuts

and ate thousands and thousands

of their incredibly popular

one-of-a-kind doughnuts,

because people said

that sooner or later

they would make her

unbelievably happy.

 

But every single day she had

the same experience:

she took bite after tasty bite of

those irresistible doughnuts,

which were soaked in a

mysterious magical potion,

and then vivid visions

pulsated and rushed

through her intense imagination;

those decadent doughnuts

inebriated her mind with dreams

of wealth and riches

and silver and gold --

and she was drunk with delight;

but as soon as she reached

the hole in the middle,

the visions suddenly vanished and

she felt a desolate emptiness and

a depressing loneliness

which always left her

hungrier and thirstier

than she had been before.

 

In the end,

she died as she lived,

starved for love,

and when she was buried,

there was a hole in her body --

like the hole of a doughnut --

where once her heart had been.