“Bodacious Words I Miss” by R. Gerry Fabian

In the days of door to door salesmen,
my grandmother would say,
“Here comes another charlatan.”

My fourth grade nun stressed,
“There will be no tomfoolery.”

I made the baseball team
because the coach said
I had spunk and moxie.

My father constantly referred to our neighbor
as a blithering idiot.

My mother cautioned me almost daily
to come right home from school and not
to gallivant around.

I wasn’t allowed to wear dungarees
to school under any circumstances.

In high school, I had the chutzpah
to take Mary Ann behind the gym bleachers
where we would buss
in between class changes.