detail #2 - slightly late

A couple months ago I submitted some poems to Dash Literary Journal. And they took one! I've never submitted anything for publication before, and I've never taken a creative writing class, and I haven't written a poem since Mrs. Julian's class in the 7th grade. So this was a big, wonderful, exciting surprise. The launch party is tomorrow in Fullerton, California, but I can't be there. So I'm celebrating by posting about it. As a side note, the wedding reception I mention was Ashley and Mike's, and they just celebrated their second anniversary on the 5th. Crazy.

Chained to a Pole

Driving to a wedding reception in Inkom, Idaho
I saw a buffalo chained to a pole.
Like a 2,000-pound pit bull, it stood
in the middle of a perfectly manicured lawn.

It had strayed so far from its pre-Columbian ancestors
who freely roamed the plains by the millions.
How humiliating to stand alone, trapped by a chain link fence.

I wondered who had begged whom for a pet buffalo.
Had the wife finally submitted to her husband’s pleadings
when he made empty promises to always clean up
the mounds of buffalo crap that would inevitably follow?
Or if they had been driving through Yellowstone
and little Tommy had been under the impression
Western Wyoming was one gigantic pet store. His
overindulgent parents hadn’t been able to refuse,
“Aww, can we keep him?” Whatever the scenario,
there the buffalo was, and I imagined they called him
something deeply poetic, like Beauregard.

I thought, on family outings, children in pale blue jumpers
would hold his leash, ride their tricycles between his legs,
and wrap their arms around his car door-sized neck.

Suddenly, playing Frisbee with man’s best friend
paled in comparison to the joys of having a pet buffalo
named Beauregard. And coming home to my yellow lab
named Gus felt completely prosaic.