Headwaters by Ellen Bryant Voigt

Author:Ellen Bryant Voigt [Voigt, Ellen Bryant]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780393350005
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 2013-08-15T04:00:00+00:00

HOG-NOSED SKUNK

because she’s half blind and thus prefers

complete not partial darkness and because

she cannot raise her tail entirely over her back

in order to use her one weapon her one defense

when you come to the squirrel trap from behind

and cover with a blanket the wire box

although my beloved won’t believe it

she just gives up she just gives up

HOUND

since thought is prayer if hard and true I thought that thought

could lead me to compassion for my fellow creatures

insects excluded contrary to the Buddha the wasps

might show a little compassion too I do include

the hound next door it moans all day all night

a loud slow lament a child can make itself sustain

to dramatize its misery this dog was once

the neighbors’ child but now they have an actual child

he’s been cast down to be a dog again chained outdoors heartsick

uncomprehending why can’t he just buck up remember his roots his lot

not more special than any other

sad hound look up

at the fledglings’ wide mouths look over here

at the cat teaching her litter how to hunt all sleek all black

they’re interchangeable her many tits confirm no favorites

no first no last

at least with only two

both can be a kind of favorite it’s better than three

I ought to know my sister and I each had one parent to herself

like Tea for Two it wasn’t hard to be the boy

until there came the actual boy he was nothing like my father

what does it mean to have flown from the same nest into the world

you’re thinking one is best

one open mouth no first no last but isn’t it

then the parents who compete no wonder the father of animals

wanders off the best is two all right one parent and one child

we’ve seen it work among the elephants

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