Taxi to the Beach

Jose Hernandez Diaz
A photo of a taxi speeding along
Photograph by Jessie Bowser on Unsplash

A man hailed a taxi outside of his apartment. He was going to the beach. Suddenly, his fedora caught on fire from his cigarette. He fanned it outside the taxi window. Then his phone rang. It was the President of Mars. “Mr. Lopez, we need your vote next week. Can we count on you?” the President asked. “My hat is on fire!” Mr. Lopez shouted. “I’m sorry to hear that, Mr. Lopez, we’ll send you a new one,” the President of Mars said. “Thanks, Mr. President, but I can’t vote for you,” Mr. Lopez said. “Then you don’t get a hat. That’s how it works. Goodbye!” the President said. Mr. Lopez hung up and tossed the flaming fedora out of the window. “To the beach!” he shouted.

Jose Hernandez Diaz is a 2017 NEA Poetry Fellow. His work appears in Bat City Review, The Cincinnati Review, Green Mountains Review, Huizache, The Nation, New American Writing, North American Review, Poetry Northwest, The Progressive, Witness, and in The Best American Nonrequired Reading anthology. He tweets at @JoseHernandezDz.

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