The baby left on our doorstep turned out to be a bison calf the size of a Kubota lawn tractor. What else could we do but take him in? It was the season, after all. We aired the spare room, warmed the milk, baked cookies in the shape of bells and whistles, a Lionel train. We taught him to speak. Moon, said the bison to the neighbor’s cows. Moon, he said to the red kettle ringer. Moon, moon, moon, he caroled. We carved full moons in small wooden blocks and printed them by hand, in ink the color of Montana. He mailed them to places we’d never have imagined, like Luna and Selene
Published in Cider Press Review, Volume 27, Issue 5.
Phillip Sterling’s collections of poetry include Local Congregation: Poems Uncollected 1985-2015, Short on Days, And Then Snow, Mutual Shores, and four chapbook-length series of poems. A collection of essays and memoir, Lessons in Geography: The Education of a Michigan Poet, was published by Cornerstone Press in August 2024.
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