TRICKS

My mother tells me it's all a trick
on old ladies
they tell them to stay in bed
then they lose all their gumption

she's out on the porch with the cactus & the cat
sipping tea
a lovely day in florida

she says that robert schuler is in on it
& I say
no, not robert schuler
but yes, robert schuler has sent her a book
he wants fifty dollars

he's a good salesman
he sent a check with
I need your help
written on it

she sent the fifty dollars

it's all a trick
they tell you to stay in bed
then you lose all your gumption
you die
and they get your money

but she fooled them
she's reading hillary
and she's not dead

KING OF THE JUNGLE

my dog chomps down on chicken bones
with his long sharp teeth
pulverizing skeleton into meal --
his ancestry unleashed in my mind --
i know he is born to bite
down on whole chickens feathered
in his great jaws --
but he serves me,
human,
just a cow with an evil brain --
these silly little bicuspids
couldn't even rip open a rabbit,
but the evil that is
my brain
could grow whole colonies of blind chickens
to fry up
for the dollar

Wendy Shaffer