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.
The police arrived 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 injected
out-of-date Narcan into another man in a coma
from an overdose in the restroom down the hall.
The plumber-son lives upstairs
in his mother’s house while she frets
over garlic mustard in her garden
and another overnight guest who gives
her gifts of sauerkraut.
An old man tries to sing farewell to his wife
in a hospice room. She whispers behave yourself
as he sings the words they made up
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
something other villainy.
You Tubes of puppy tumbles, a parrots tango, kittens hiding
in boxes, the calf who fell in love with the blind bison, and a pig
scratching his hindquarters on a table leg collect millions
of likes and oh, did I ask what happened to Hope?
© 2018, Tricia Knoll
Overwhelming … that so much is going on at the same time. That really shouldn’t surprise me. Whatever it is/says/does to my senses, it is good poetry, simply because it makes me think; takes me out of my box; puts me in a different picture frame 🙂
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Covers a lot of predjudice with clever alllusions. Great poem
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