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

Hell Yes

Your life
Is a three and a half minute song
...
Be sure you
Scream and
Flail
Through the
Chorus
Each and
Every
Time

Making Yourself Invisible

You have superpowers

For real

Because

You can drive by a

Deer

Squirrel

Skunk

Even a

Cat

Lying on the side of the road

In any and 

Every 

State of disrepair

With little more than a twinge of regret

That the roadside isn't all daisies and long grass

Iron your cape and put it on

Because

You can transform 

Even a cat or a dog

Into 

A ten year old ford taurus

Without 

Looking into the vanity mirror and

Seeing a 1973 levis edition amc gremlin

all mammals named sam are clammy

Sonic dissonance
Sweeps over me
Like a wave
In a bathtub
Rubber ducky
Shooting over my head
As visions of my feet fly up in the air and
I want to grab for them
But the sound is all around
Me
And I can't move
Trapped in a cacophony cocoon
Until
Three minutes an thirty two second pass
And the drain plug is pulled and
All of it and
All of me
Goes swirling down the drain
Into
Sonic consonance

Connect Four

Connect
Four
With
Seven
Almost
Eight
After
First win
And
Latest loss
Eyes meet
Connect

The Tyrannies, Proclamations, and Investigations of a Grumpy Five Year Old

I'm not going to school
I will not play the piano
You can't take me on walks
Ever again
No long car rides
No family pictures
No board games
No naps
Not anymore and
I'll never eat chicken or
Fish and
Once I'm fifteen
No more snacks

Art Appreciation

Today
Standing on the porch
Kleenex in hand
Staring out at blue skies
Fluffy clouds
Increasingly green grass
Flowers of every color and
Short sleeved  shirts
I feel like a blind man
Who has just inherited a Picasso
Tomorrow
Staring out at the rain
From the kitchen window
Box of kleenex on the counter
It will be Picasso
Circa 1903
That I won't be able to appreciate

Quote

Before you react to a few words
It is helpful
To think of yourself and
The rest of us
As termites and
The sum of your words
Our words
As the mound and
To remember that
Termite mounds are spectacular
Even though they are equal bits
Earth and
Shit

a different snow is falling

the wind still has bite
but it also spreads yellow
blue, pink, purple, white

Freedom

Freedom is an empty room
Windows open
White walls
Adorned only by the shadows cast by
The sheer curtains
Fluttering in the breeze
Wide plank pine floors
Painted with shadows and
Light and
All of it
Always
Waiting
Yearning
To be less perfect
Less empty
Less
Free