From The Big Book of Fairy Tale Jokes for Grown Up Girls
by Jessica Hudson

The mannequin in the vintage shop bathes in my perfume. 

I am a gift from the past.     A ghost.     The present
         in the future.    Tasteless,     timeless,     oxymoronic.

Riot of memories curled within the swirl of a soft-serve cone. 

I exhale Cracker Barrel.     Make you feel powerful.
                                                   Old.
I plant my dusty flag in the skulls of porcelain girls
         growing up along the walls of Hallmark. 

                                          What am I?

Jessica Hudson is a graduate teaching assistant working on her Creative Writing MFA at Northern Michigan University. She is an associate editor for Passages North. Her work has been published in The Pinch, Sweet Lit, and perhappened mag, among others. Find her on Twitter @JessicaRWHudson.