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).