Rescue the mother
and her shivering cat
from the porch
of the nursing home
Beware of cannibals
meeting in caves
You are going to
need help with them
Cross the bridge
single-file Come to realize
that’s no dog in the kennel
It’s a skunk
And those patches
of light in the forest?
They’re pieces of skin
Marianne Taylor is a bookseller at Powell’s on Burnside where she manages the sales floor in the Blue, Gold, and Green rooms. In a previous life she taught literature and creative writing at a Midwestern college, and her poetry has been published widely in national journals and anthologies. She once served as Poet Laureate of her former small town, but for the past three years she’s been trying to find her way around Portland.