My Guinea Pig

If you’ve heard the one about the tree in the woods

You’ll understand that I have to be off

It’s hard to know for sure when your patient is sick

If you aren’t there to listen to the cough

It’s almost time for dinner now

And carrots, parsley and grapes
They will not ever chop themselves

And jump up onto the plate

My little friend, he eats and he sleeps

He squeaks and he eats quite frequently

And between the three it’s safe to say

Eating is his speciality

When I appear at the top of the stairs

The gymnastics and theatrics begin

If it wasn’t for all of his eating

He’d really be very very very very very  thin

He jumps, he chews, he squeals with rage

Gripping the bars of his rectangular cage

Being small must not seem so fair

Especially not when he’s trapped inside there

Does he save this show just for me

Or does the cat stop by

And politely offer to serve

A homemade carrot pie

All that I know for certain

Is that when I put his bowl next to his hay

He empties it completely

That is all he ever really has to say

So I’ll be going now

See you later this week

I have a tree at home

That is about to squeak

By: Seren Alexia Angus

the second nice day of the season

a watermelon,

corn on the cob, a dirty

striped picnic blanket

Cat Naps

I know that Carpe Diem is American
Hell it's even the name of a blog on the American Enterprise Institute's website but
I've been on a see saw recently
With a five year old and
I experienced the knee pain and
Calf strain and
Right at this moment
At barely six thirty in the morning
Nothing hurts but
I am uneasy because
A cat is sitting silently next to my chair
Not wailing or
Chewing plastic bags
As he has been known to do but
Simply staring off into the distance
Waiting
Waiting
Not like a leopard in a tree watching a troop of monkeys forage for fruit but
Waiting
Like a businessman standing in front of the doors of a subway train
If subway train doors had to be approached like antelope and
Businessmen had the patience of cats
Waiting
With the knowledge that
Sometimes
Days are
Like
Antelope and
Subway train doors and
Five year olds on see saws and
That's why cat's pounce and
Nap

second grade in may

little desks huddled
together like emperor
penguins with no eggs

Antique Plates

Check for rust
Look for wear and tear
Everywhere
Listen to the engine
Ask about mileage
Get up and go
Reliability and
Whatever else you want
Ask away
The answers don't matter anymore
Because
I've long been eligible for a
Antique plates

First World Problems

Land mine
Sand mine
The difference is just an L
Yet
While one sends you off to council meetings
The other sends you straight to hell

Impatience

The warm sun, the blue

Sky, the white clouds, the light breeze

The next station is

New Jersey Transit and wishful thinking

Stopped in the station

Rocks bathed in the warm sunlight

No litter in sight

Gardener on Sabbatical

I am clothed in short sleeves and blue skies and

Stillness

Hands folded in my lap

As everything rushes by outside my window

Buildings

Cars

Trees 

Graffiti and

Presumably 

Weeds

Although

At this speed

Mood and

Level of detachment

I can't or

Won't

Be 

Sure

there's always an after

sand in the bath tub
aloe spread thickly on arms
seasonal fallout

Of Fenton, the Pharaohs, and the letter K

In the mid 1970s
Fenton, Michigan leveled its historic downtown
A building or two
Survived
Like a photo of a tall skinny girl
Standing on the beach in the shape of the letter K
Smiling
Buried in a box of old slides and baseball cards
Now
They have some great strip malls
But even if they had built another small town movie theater
On top of the old one
There would still be that earlier building
On the edge of town
Poking its facade up to the top of an old shoe box and
Probably
Even
An old wall in the basement
Waiting
Like the earlier tomb waits
Under the more recent one
Waiting
To be rediscovered
Remembered
At least until
We need to buy some bottled water or
Watch a movie