by Tricia Knoll
The snake fell from a branch into his canoe
inside the open lid of a wicker picnic basket
of tuna sandwiches, potato chips, and pickles.
He skipped only three paddle strokes.
The police arrive en masse at the homeless shelter
to pick up a man with a false ID wanted
in four states for sex abuse and one officer
injects out-of-date Narcan into another man seen
dying of an overdose in the restroom. One life saved.
The electrician-son lives upstairs
in his mother’s house while she frets
over garlic mustard in her garden
and an infrequent overnight guest who gives her
homemade kimchi every Wednesday.
An old man wants to sing farewell to his wife
in a hospice room. She whispers behave yourself
over and over as he forgets the words
to the tune they used to dance to.
A woman named Hope excuses herself
by saying she told white lies for the President
as if whiteness makes her trumped-up story
less problematic than a black lie might be.
On You Tube puppies tumble, parrots dance, kittens pile up
in boxes, a calf falls in love with a blind bison, and a mini-pig
scratches his hindquarters on a table leg to collect millions
of hits and oh, did I ask what happened to Hope?
The extension of the Orca’s range into waters
where sea ice melts early? Red squirrels return
to the Scottish Highlands? Kids who go to school
demand changes in gun laws to keep them safe.
 |
| For the very first time, a Russian tanker has traversed the Northern Sea Route in winter without an icebreaker Getty via The Independent, March 1, 2018 |
The snake fell from a branch into his canoe
inside the open lid of a wicker picnic basket
of tuna sandwiches, potato chips, and pickles.
He skipped only three paddle strokes.
The police arrive en masse at the homeless shelter
to pick up a man with a false ID wanted
in four states for sex abuse and one officer
injects out-of-date Narcan into another man seen
dying of an overdose in the restroom. One life saved.
The electrician-son lives upstairs
in his mother’s house while she frets
over garlic mustard in her garden
and an infrequent overnight guest who gives her
homemade kimchi every Wednesday.
An old man wants to sing farewell to his wife
in a hospice room. She whispers behave yourself
over and over as he forgets the words
to the tune they used to dance to.
A woman named Hope excuses herself
by saying she told white lies for the President
as if whiteness makes her trumped-up story
less problematic than a black lie might be.
On You Tube puppies tumble, parrots dance, kittens pile up
in boxes, a calf falls in love with a blind bison, and a mini-pig
scratches his hindquarters on a table leg to collect millions
of hits and oh, did I ask what happened to Hope?
The extension of the Orca’s range into waters
where sea ice melts early? Red squirrels return
to the Scottish Highlands? Kids who go to school
demand changes in gun laws to keep them safe.
Tricia Knoll is an Oregon poet who sifts through the vagaries of Facebook entries and news nearly every day. Her new book How I Learned to Be White will be available from Antrim House Press and Amazon by the end of this month.
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