Welcome to Cozy Poetry Corner by Debra Winter (Debbie)

Eddie Blindsite: Frazzled Writer

What does it feel like to be a writer down on your luck? Hello, my name is Eddie Blindsite. I’m a writer who loves cartoons and writing for children; I love to make people smile and laugh. I once had a job working as a cartoonist, never worries about anything, just come up with things to make people smile and children laugh.

I live in a small trailer home on the edge of Nowhere Gully. They call it Nowhere Gully for a reason; this place is an unused trailer park. It has many abandoned trailers which I have adopted one since I have no other home. There is a stream nearby where I get my water and wash my clothes. It’s not much, but I call it home.

My publisher released me from my contract months ago. He said things were changing. And for the better. He also said many people in the company didn’t care to laugh and they were tired of my stories to the children. He also said all the contests they had my work in just didn’t measure up to the standard of others—were always on the bottom of what he called a totem pole. To me I had thought I had a great crowd of friends who enjoyed my writing, my creations, the things to make you laugh and smile. I guess I was wrong. So, I packed my things since being fired from my job, needing to look for a company who needed what I do. As there was nothing left here.

 Then one day I was talking to a person—who I just started a small conversation with. We were standing in line at a fruit stand. He gave me this place to call to join his group. I couldn’t lose. So, I called. They excepted me into writing to them. To show them what I could do. I was happy for a while. Making new friends who really love my work. There too were people who didn’t like my work. I signed up for several of their contests. Of course, my friends voted for my contest pieces if they were not in the contest too. But I soon realized that to win, you needed a huge number of friends who enjoyed what you did. Or had money to buy their votes. Talk about love for your talent, bah humbug, I say. It’s more about who you know, not what you can do.

Life has changed so much these days it is hard to get a job you love. I was just lucky that when I was working, I had put money aside for a rainy day. That money and the way I’m living in the trailer, is keeping me healthy enough to keep my hopes up. In time it will give me ample time to find a job, any job.

One evening I found a newspaper lying on the table outside a restaurant. I asked the busser who was cleaning it if I could have it. No problem, he said. I started reading it and there was a children’s fair going to happen soon in the park. They were looking for artists that could draw and do art with the kids. I was so excited by that thought. I felt it could really help me to improve myself. So, I enquired. I was told to go to the park commissioner’s office to fill out an application. I did so right away. Then handed it in—was told they would give me an answer in two days. Those were the longest two days of my life. But I waited.

Finally, the day came. I went to find out if I could be of service at the children’s fair. low and behold they said, yes! They need my services. They wanted me to do special drawings of the children in caricature form. The price would be twenty-five dollars per child, and they would supply the paper and pencils I would need. My days were looking up!

And so, under the shady maples of Nowhere Park, surrounded by giggles and sticky cotton candy fingers, I began drawing. The kids lined up—faces painted, eyes sparkling—and asked for wild hair, big noses, and superhero capes. I gave each sketch a little flair of my own: a twinkle in the eye, a joke tucked into a silly chin.

Parents smiled. One even asked for a caricature of their dog. Another handed me a business card—said he worked for a publishing house looking for someone with “heart.” That word stuck with me.

By the end of the fair, I had fifty smiling faces in my sketchbook and nearly a thousand bucks in my pocket. Not bad for a guy from Nowhere Gully who once thought his laughter wasn’t enough.

Turns out, the world still wants joy. You just must camp out long enough by the stream to hear it laughing again.

And me? I’m still drawing. Still writing. Still Eddie Blindsite: Frazzled, yes. But never forgotten.