Three squirrels wrestling to sit next to one another,
on the same branch, and munch on the same acorn.
They pause and seem to giggle as they take note of
my amusement with their play.
They are now more tentative,
probably discussing their wonderment
that in the wake of a storm I’d be sitting alone,
reading in starched khakis, blue-blazer, and ray-bans.
It’s their yard not mine,
and they seem to be plotting a plan in case I don’t move on.
They don’t realize I’m early for a reading,
and will be here at least another hour.
They seem amused as the ladies arrive,
and take their seats with their glasses of punch,
whispering as though in church,
and putting their umbrellas under the folding chairs.
They giddily seem resolved to see this through with me,
settling in, tails entwined,
hoping I do the one about the fidgeting squirrels,
before it rains, and the audience scurries.
Craig Kirchner
Craig Kirchner is retired and thinks of poetry as hobo art. He loves storytelling and the aesthetics of the paper and pen. He has had two poems nominated for the Pushcart, and has a book of poetry, Roomful of Navels. He houses 500 books in his office and about 400 poems in a folder on a laptop. These words tend to keep him straight. After a writing hiatus he was recently published in Poetry Quarterly, Decadent Review, New World Writing, WordSwell, Vine Leaf Press, 7th Circle Pyrite, Ariel Chart, Blotter, Bombfire, Borderless Crossings, Cape Magazine, Carolina Muse, Chiron Review, Coneflower Café, Dark Winter, Edge of Humanity, Fairfield Scribe, Fixator, Flora Fiction, Floyd County, Gas, Ginosko, Globe Review, Hamilton Stone Review, Impspired, Ink in Thirds, Journal of Expressive Writing, Kleksograph, Last Leaves, Last Stanza, Light Ekphrastic, Lit Shark, Literary Heist, Literary Yard, Loud Coffee and others.