The
Water Moccasin Cycle
and
other poems
by Chris
McCaleb
Reembowelled
One word you don't
hear much:
Reembowelled
It has to be out there
Because we have its opposite
Maybe they don't say it
because it's so hard to do
But I don't think they've really tried
Cary Grant Runs for
His Life
As I watch Cary
Grant run through the cornfield
I have to laugh
Does he think he's going to get away?
Doesn't he know
That plane trying to run him down
Like a frustrated car
represents Mr. Insurance Man?
And you can't get away from the Insurance Man, Mr. Grant
Not in the state of Illinois.
Poor Cary
Rethinking "Cary
Grant Runs for His Life"
Maybe the plane
was the cable bill
Stuck With Susie
I try to pay the
lady in the booth
She says - go over to that automated turnstile, so I won't get stuck with
Susie
It's hard travelling with Susan B. Anthony
Always going on and on about feminism
Finally I'm rid of her
She's lodged in a Coke Machine - I forgot and thought she was a quarter
Having Dropped the
Tack I Was Saving
Having dropped the
tack I was saving
Now the note will have to be dealt with immediately
I cannot fix it to my board
to deal with at some unspecified future time
I could make some joke about taking a different tack
but I am more concerned with the one I dropped
I fear it will come back to haunt me later
on a seat
in a file
at the bottom of a jar of pencils
dammit
The Scoliote in
Denial
It is I, the
Scoliote!
I have made it to work and am not crippled!
So goes the wounded cry of the scoliote in denial
I AM NOT CRIPPLED, says the scoliote
Yet we all know the truth
-
The Water Moccasin Cycle -
The Two
Scariest Words
Two Words:
Water Moccasin.
Do I need to say any more?
Revisiting the Water
Moccasin
You may say that
the taunted lion
or the cornered wildebeest
or the roaming great white
or the hungry hammerhead
or the giant grizzly
is the deadliest
But none of those things almost touched my foot
that time I was floating in the creek on an inner tube.
Again With The Water
Moccasins
or
Separating The Two Scariest Words
Even having water
and moccasin
on one line
is too much
They make the other words nervous
If only they were separated -
one talking about a safe, comfortable shoe,
the other about a refreshing drink
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