Mina The Schnozz

Her name was Mina
she was tall and slim
and smart as a whip

Her nickname
among the slum rats of
the housing project was
Mina the Shnozz
because she had
inherited
a big fat
middle eastern nose
from her
east european
immigrant parents
and she paid dearly
for this egregious
facial flaw
by being teased
constantly by
the gutter snipes that
inhabited the neighborhood
such as it was
and this inexcusable
bullying behavior
went on for years
all through
junior high school

As a graduation present
and as a gift for her
sweet sixteen
Mina’s parents
scraped together
enough money to
provide her with
the gift of
plastic surgery
to make her
nose more proportionate
to her face



The transformation
was remarkable
and immediate and
Mina was instantly transformed
into one of the most
beautiful girls
ever to enter
the freshman class
of Abraham Lincoln High

And though she continued
to reside in the projects
she resolved to have
nothing to do with
any of her previous tormentors
and who could blame her

Mina sailed through
high school as the
reigning beauty queen and
upon graduation
she launched a
very successful
modeling and
fashion design career

The gutter snipes
of coney island
learned an important
life lesson about
never judging a book
by its cover

Me?
I liked her fine
when she was still
known as
Mina the Shnozz
either way
she never took
any special notice of me

jhmarkowitz
Philadelphia, Pa. 2012