A Stray Poem (A Poem)

By Joyce Jacobo

[Author’s Note: At least partially inspired by the experiences I had with a sweet kitty who happened to turn up on my front porch.]

I found a Stray Poem was on my front porch

    one clear            Spring morning

         as I stepped outside

                   to view the sunrise

It was a small              and timid text

       half-hidden              under a wooden stool

              beside some potted ferns

                   and flinched away

                         when I took a step closer

Someone must have abandoned it—

        perhaps a visitor to the countryside

              thoughtless and cruel enough

                 to hope what they refused to handle

                         in the broad stretches of fields

                              common around my hometown

I left and returned a moment later

        with a saucer of milk

               alongside soothing words spoken

                      from several feet away

         until—

                     little         by        little

                              syllable

                                 after

                              syllable

                  the Stray Poem emerged

                      to where I could read dismay

                                                         fear

                                                  and desperation in every line

I soothed the Stray Poem

         by reciting the works

                 of poets who treated

                        writing with great care

                                     . . . until the Stray Poem crept

                                                    close beside me

                                                            and fell asleep

By evening          I had carried the Stray Poem indoors

               where it became

                       my newest Poem—

                                never to be a Stray

                                            ever again                  

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