School Bus Legend 

I became an instant celebrity at the back
of that smoking yellow aluminum travesty
and it’s potpourri of body odor fogging up
the windows when I ate a dried up remnant
of my own mucous to shock and awe.

I very quickly became infamous for my hidden
talent.  At lunch time kids would whisper “It’s
him” as I passed by with my corn dog covered
in wiggling peaches misplaced by the lunch
lady as she beamed at me and gave me extra
tater tots, having heard about my leap to the
top of the first grade social hierarchy.

my time in the spotlight was cut short when
another kid on the bus home belched out the
chorus of the song “Smooth Criminal” and I was
all washed up, my once popular show cancelled
and replaced with some hack who stole my act
when he bit off his own scab. 

Kevin Ridgeway is from Southern California, where lives and writes. Nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net, his work has most recently appeared or is forthcoming in Chiron Review, Re)verb, LUMMOX, Bicycle Review, Bank-Heavy Press, Chaffey Review, Trailer Park Quarterly and The Mas Tequila Review, among others. He is the author of five chapbooks of poetry, including All the Rage (Electric Windmill Press, 2013), 66 Lines on Your Soul (co-authored with Catfish McDaris and Subhankar Das, Graffiti Kolkata, 2014), On the Burning Shore (Arroyo Seco Press, 2014) and Riding Off Into that Strange Technicolor Sunset (forthcoming, Weekly Weird Monthly Press, 2015).