New Migrants in a New City
Compare the fat raccoons to the poor
coyotes, scruffy-coated, spindle-shanked
shivering beggars that appear from nowhere
over a hillock out of a copse of ash,
familiar, but somehow off, shadow dogs,
children of the drool moon and teeth gnash
heeding the siren call of canine gods
luring them south along the West Side Highway
over the Spuyten Duyvil. The squad trots
into Manhattan from the Bronx – hungry,
ear-grinning, tongue-lolling lads –
praying for a plentiful supply
of mice and squirrels, rabbits, voles and frogs,
and even fat raccoons or small dogs.
M. Brooke Wiese’s work has appeared most recently in Snakeskin, Persimmon Tree, The Orchards, The Road Not Taken, Voices and Visions Journal, New Lyre, and Spoon River Poetry Review. Her second chapbook, Memento Mori, is available from Finishing Line Press and a third, Allen Ginsberg is a Mensch, is now out from Bottlecap Press. Brooke lives with her wife and sons in New York City and currently teaches at a special education inclusion school in Manhattan to high school students of all abilities. www.mbrookewiese.net
Pulsebeat Poetry Journal 