8.29.2025
THE K FILES: Season 1, Episode 4 (Rerun)
This has been a busy week, so I’ll leave you with an episode from the first season of The K Files, a series of persona poems responding to images of Kewpie dolls. If you’re a newer subscriber, you won’t have seen this poem before. If you have seen it, I hope you don’t mind seeing it again. For readers with an eye to craft, the poem is a chain of fifty-six lunes.
As before, I thank my dear friend Mary Holscher for the inspiration provided by this anecdote involving her mother, who as a child gave herself the name Sunshine Bricktop:
I have a photo of my mother as a baby. She’s holding a small Kewpie doll.
Years ago, I found the Kewpie in a box of stuff, not noticing it was in the photo with my mother, and knowing nothing about Kewpies. Its leg was broken off, so I gave it to Goodwill.
When my mom died, I got the photo and noticed the Kewpie. I felt so bad that I’d given it away! I still can’t believe I did that!
Will there be another season of The K Files? Twist my arm. For now, let’s turn this post over to the narrator of episode 4 from the first one.
It’s not nice to stare Your mother should have told you so If you want to know what happened all you have to do is ask That would beat letting your piehole hang open like an imbecile Do you think this couldn’t be you? It wouldn’t take much A bus crash Tangle with jaguars Antagonistic rival on Dancing with the Stars Any snakebit day could mangle your familiar life & your denial wouldn’t have a stump to stand on But never mind Let’s talk turkey Once I was like you only prettier & so much better socialized Once I had my own little girl called Sunshine Bricktop a human creature but we were nearly twins & best of happy playmates She took me everywhere which means to Paris in France & London & once to Siam as that place was known Just kidding We stayed close to home in Cowlitz County Washington & played at being chic cosmopolites But the leg? Sit tight I’ll get there since you plainly think that’s the most fascinating thing about me War came The Great War President Wilson sent me to the Front far away from Sunshine Bricktop She was three years old I returned a peg-legged hero to a grand parade in the town of Kelso & marched in my own fashion But where was my Sunshine Bricktop? She was five years old now too big for the likes of me Boy howdy that stung So I up & joined the circus I toured all over In Spokane! In Twisp! In Ione! One day in Yacolt Tod Browning the film director watched me performing bareback on a silver hamster & he offered me on the spot a contract & cash but he was a drunk & my dreams all burned down to ash So I returned home to Kelso & looked everywhere for Sunshine Bricktop I found out she’d married a Kraut in another town I was told she had three daughters & I thought Aha! I shall search high & low for them & they’ll play with me So I searched but when I found them they had plushy toys I was stuffed in a cardboard box out in the garage I languished heart in smithereens spirit pulverized & peg leg consumed by weevils After many years sudden light from a naked bulb spilled down onto me in my box where I’d been humming softly to myself in the dark tunes like “Sweet Marie” “Goodbye Dolly Gray” “Jada” & “You Are My Sunshine” & a pair of hands lifted me I cried out Sunshine Bricktop! Is that you? But it was a grown-up daughter gathering trash for collection She mishandled me with indifference to my wartime sacrifice Even ran a thumb around the hollow which had been my leg & later my peg She tossed me in a Hefty bag sanitized her hands & uttered a mild expletive So here you find me old soldier among dented forks Depression-glass cups cracked plastic radios & stained sepia photos of random deceased notables Yet my suffering has not been completely in vain Honor has found me once again I am proud to say I hold the rank of Brigadier Salvation Army Sworn the 17th of August 2023
You can’t replay this too many times. The journey through kewpie’s reminiscence and Sunshine Bricktop is so good! Funny and sad. A fav.
Love, love, love this one--so sharply observed, funny, sad and true!