Poem Involving a Goose

There should, he said,

To his ghastly, ghostly image,

Looking peaked, and looming in the hallway mirror,

Be more poems about food,

Farm implements, and especially farm animals.

More needs to be said, he advised his reflection,

About chicken cacciatore,

Fusilli primavera, chicken or veal cutlets

Sautéed in a white wine garlic sauce.

And as for the farm implements,

And lest we forget, the farm animals,

It seems to me, he smiled,

That you could take up a rake, a pitchfork, or a shovel

And bonk the goose on the head.

If you can handle poetry, then why not poultry?

*

Remington Murphy received his B.A. in 1980, and his M.A. in 1983, both in English from Temple University, where you can’t major in English anymore. In the 80’s he edited the Magic Bullet Science Fiction Anthology, then in the late 80’s/early 90’s he ran R.E.M. Press, which gave him an opportunity to publish some fine poets he met in graduate school, such as Sylan Esh and Michael Graves. In 1990 he published his own poetry chapbook, “Courting the Black Widow,” and then in 1993 he had a full length book of poems published, “Fear of Vision” (Arkada-Arch, New York). He has also published a collection of masques (e.g. short dramatic pieces written in verse), “Boogaloo” (Mellen Poetry Press, 2004).