On an acreage south of town, mail piles up in a roadside box. After three days, the postman does a welfare check, finds Evie dead in her living-room recliner, surrounded by critters.
It takes ASPCA officials and shelter aides two weeks to capture and treat her dogs, ferrets, cats, and rabbits.
Everybody knew Evie was a soft touch. Some knocked on her door first thing in the morning, teary-eyed, pets in tow. Others waited until dark to dump their unwanteds at the property edge.
In the coffee shop, local know-it-alls fixate on two questions: “How many animals?” and “Were there bite marks on the body?”
tribute band ...
cawing crows
along the Via Dolorosa
poems and prose have appeared or are forthcoming in Akitsu Quarterly; Chrysanthemum; Contemporary Haibun Online; Drifting Sands; Failed Haiku: A Journal of English Senryu; Frogpond; Gyroscope Review; Ink Sweat & Tears; MacQueen’s Quinterly; Poetry Pea Journal; Prune Juice Journal of Senryu & Kyoka; Shadow Pond Journal; tsuri-dōrō (a small journal of haiku and senryū); and Unbroken Journal.
