Who Who Poem by Linda Hepner

The cat’s on the table, the geese in the yard,
the parrot is screeching, the dog’s on his guard,
the brown leaves are falling, the succah is wet
and squirrels are stealing, the deadline’s not met,

the squirrels seem curvy and loveable but
they gobble each corncob and bury each nut,
and with them my minutes and hours and days
belonging to others’ demands and the ways

each person I love shunts my dreaming aside;
I cannot say no and I cannot deride
a request or a need or a word or a cry
of love me or help me - if not woe betide

that parroty conscience, those pestering meows,
that autumnal anguish, the dry dusty house,
the voiceover screeching, the bark and the howl,
the fear of the silence, the hoot of the owl.


(LRH/10.1.07)