Castaways
Paper clouds
hung over the island
as the Doublemint Twins
paddled to shore.
At first they were lonely.
They couldn’t converse
since they inevitably said
the same things
at the same time
in the same chirpy voices.
After they used
their last sticks of gum
to catch a curious seagull
they found their mouths
strangely empty.
Fishing helped.
It kept their hands active
and they could throw
in a word now and then.
Their eyes gradually adjusted
to the absence of studio glare
and by the time they were rescued
several weeks later
they were practically normal.
Naturally, the media went berserk–
pretty girls in rags,
deserted island,
spiritual reawakening, etc.–
and by summer,
on tour with their new book,
the girls glanced at each other
behind the glitter-eyed talk show host,
grass-skirted and gyrating
on a patch of studio sand,
and wondered if the cool evening breezes
and the golden path on the water
were only a paper dream.
Scott Moncrieff is an English teacher at Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan. His previous poems have appeared in The Nebraska Review, The Rockford Review, Christian Century and other venues.