Four Poems (June 20, 2009. Issue 6.)

Happy Endings

Keeping Score

I appreciate that Facebook
In a clean column on the left
Lets me know just how many
Friends I really don’t have.

The World of Men

She is wary of men—what they might say to her
or think about her or do to her or want from her. 

She thinks that men are, at their base, criminal, savage, untamed.
Her first instinct naturally assumes serial killer or cannibal.

When she survives an encounter with a man, unmolested,
It is always, always a rather pleasant surprise.

By All Means, Please State the Obvious

The only thing more disconcerting than seeing a dog wearing precocious little canine outfits or capes or fireman’s hats or scary harness leashes is the way dog owners tell anyone who will listen their dog’s age as if relatively intelligent adults are rendered incapable of multiplying something by a factor of seven in the presence of a dog. Thank you for sharing that your dog is six or forty-two years old in human years thereby informing me of the very complex conversion required to understand dog years.