Category: animals
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Pet Obedience School in a Time of Voter Suppression
Chose a pet wisely if they’re rambunctious when no one is watching, let the shelter put the free-spirited to sleep Habituate them to a cage, jerk their chain and when you demand obedience they’ll follow quietly behind performing for treats —-Dedicated to all the voters who stood in line for hours trying to vote 6-16-20
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Barefoot on my daughter’s front porch
Tired and hungry from the night Mustapha whines at the back porch screen. It is my daughter’s house so I won’t let him in I want to listen to birds and sip my coffee quietly before the sun and grand kids rise. I tell him to hush, go somewhere else. He continues his mewling high…
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haiku for Sunday’s ambient music soundtrack
dog barks, chainsaw whines basketballs thump, mower drones birds call back and forth 6-7-20
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for Marie
Marie lived in the big house she was born in. She had a baby grand in the parlor and cookies in the kitchen. She was my mother’s friend. She was the pianist for the Masonic hall. She told me I had a good voice. There was a picture on her mantle, of a young woman…
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Vignettes from Friday’s fire pit
Junk mail and old receipts make good kindling From the end of a rotted log a beetle crawls out Stands on a brick and races off before it gets too hot On its way to the park a calico with a belled collar walks quietly through your yard A woman walks by on the street…
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Out of Minnesota
Richard Attenborough narrates another documentary A pride of lions singles out a member of the herd You feel empathy for the hunted held by the neck bleating until limp and dead Torn apart on screen The camera turns Cream-colored lions with their cubs in the sun bellies full King of the Serengeti admires his children…
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and I think it’s going to rain today
(stream of consciousness poem) On my sixty-eighth birthday a tropical depression spins offshore and the forecast is for rain all week and I worry about whole beaches being torn from the shore and the song ‘And I Think It’s Going To Rain Today’ is caught in the riptide in my head and I curse Randy…
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no anesthesia
Spiraled black-speckled flypaper waves in the wind from the porch For family summer picnic fun on the farm flies trapped in glue, struggle till they die Chickens, a pig and a cow are slaughtered deviled eggs, tomatoes and green beans prepared Rocky mountain oysters sit fried in a bowl on the table Harvested from ball…
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Slaughterhouse
If goats knew why they were raised and could vote would they need to be reclassified essential goats before they could be sacrificed? (A short poem dedicated to those who need a job to feed their families and labor in meat packing plants that the POTUS ordered to stay open) 5-10-20
My husband's poetry 