Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Poem of the Day: "Noted" by Carolyn Martin, Poet of the Week

Songs of Eretz Poetry Review is pleased to present “Noted” by Carolyn Martin, Poet of the Week.  A brief biography of the poet may be found here:  http://eretzsongs.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-songs-of-eretz-poet-of-week-for.html.

Noted
Carolyn Martin

1. To cats using my yard as a latrine 

Warning: Cayenne pepper’s spread
along the fence, crushed pecan shells
above the fountain-falls.
Keep your heat in the neighbor’s yard.
(They peanut-feed the squirrels
who hide husks in my flower beds.)
Mounds-for-mounds are justified.

If this fails,
I’ve gathered pebble-piles
on the patio behind
the chipped ceramic pot.
My aim, off-line a bit with age,
was known to sizzle strikes
into a catcher’s padded mitt.


2. To the dog sitter
 
The pooper scooper’s propped
against the sliding door.
(Sharp of tongue, dull of mind,
the neighbor one door south
carps at mounds of compost
on her mossy lawn.)
Sanitize after use.

Encourage Jake to taunt
the squirrels and cats.
And, if he finds a mole, wrap it
in a sack from our recycling bin. 
Second thought: Scoop it naked
through that knot-less hole
in my neighbor’s tilting fence.

Poet’s Notes:  Our neighborhood is filled with feral cats that love to use the bark dust in our yard as their litter box. I have been known to throw pebbles at them – usually missing by several feet. The dog sitter section is pure imagination – I’m not an animal person – but it does throw a barb at those neighbors whose dogs “decorate” other people’s lawns.

Editor’s Note:  I see a bit of Robert Frost and William Carlos Williams here.  “Noted” was originally published in Carolyn Martin, Finding Compass (Portland, OR: Queen of Wands Press, 2011). 

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