Category: animals
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Lament #17
I read cicadas will be plentiful this summer Returning from long quarantine underground I miss the high descant keening above tree frog choruses I miss life begging come sit with me before we die I miss the closeness of being alive 6-19-20
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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…
