POEM #6- BYGONES

April is National Poetry Month. For the past four years, I have joined my friend Mary Lee, at POETREPOSITORY and YEAR OF READING in writing a poem every day for a month. This year, Mary Lee's theme is BYGONES. She has selected thirty vintage photographs from a collection she found at her mom's house in Burlington, Colorado, and is writing from one photograph every day. I'm not sure if I will write from Mary Lee's photographs every day, or if I will see if I can find some of my own. For the past few years, we have been joined by several other amazing poets- Kevin Hodgson and Steve Peterson. 

RETRIBUTION

Every year
Pa takes a picture
on my birthday
I always wanted a pet
and the last three years
I've picked up
our gray tiger Caesar
he's mostly a barn cat
but on my birthday
I pretend I'm all kinds of fine
and sit in the front room
holding him in my lap
usually I have to snitch
a little piece of chicken
and hide it in my pocket
to make him stay
and in the pictures
his nose is always slightly upturned
because he is searching
for that chicken

This year
we don't have Caesar
We found some gray tiger fur
stained red
out in the cornfield
and Pa said
the coyotes musta got
our gray tiger
mostly barn
but pretend pet Caesar
Not sure why
Pa thought
it would be good
to take a picture of me
with this coyote he shot
behind the chicken house
a couple of months ago.
That coyote's not nearly as fine
as poor Caesar.

(C) Carol Wilcox, 2016