Talent, Some Will Say

I wish I had your talent...I have been told a lot in my

lifetime. I can’t draw a straight line, they may go on.

Neither can I, is my ofttimes sarcastic but honest reply.

If I could, I’d be an architect or an engineer and not

the struggling and unknown cartoonist I happen to be.

But with your gift surely you must be pleased? A mixed

bag, I’ll tell them with the utmost sincerity—sometimes

happy, sometimes depressed and sad like regular folks,

you know. Say, can you draw a caricature of me, they

may ask? Not for cash, I’m broke, but posterity. Who

knows, perhaps you’ll become famous one of these

days. And I can say that I knew him way back when, be-

fore he achieved fame and fortune. Look here, I tell him,

just because I can draw and you can’t is no guarantee for

either you are me. Oh, what the hell...here, that’s the best

I can do right now. Take it or leave it. And smiling ear-to-

ear, he goes on his merry way, for now a happy man and

pleased as a tick on a dog could be. Why, that damned

sketch I rendered didn’t even come close to resembling

him. And showing it to his wife when he got home, she

didn’t mind telling him so. Chris Hanch, she read the name

at the bottom...Who in hell is that? Same thing you, dear

reader, may be asking yourself when you get to the bottom

of this.

Chris Hanch 9-19-19