Feasted on discarded gooseberries,
two young raccoons
fled like seabirds
up the thorned blacklocust branches.
A half-moon sunrise over a carcass
with horns and entrails. Three buzzards
hover: red surprises.
All eaters: wary-eyed, devouring.
Way up north, you could drink from the lake
dip your tin cup from the gliding canoe.
Hoo hoo hoo hymn the doves, mourning as always.
Published in Cider Press Review, Volume 15, Issue 3.
Ann Neuser Lederer was born in Ohio and has also lived and worked in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Kentucky as a Registered Nurse. Her poems and nonfiction appear in many journals and Best of the Net; and in her chapbooks, Approaching Freeze, The Undifferentiated, and Weaning the Babies.See all items about Ann Neuser Lederer