Muskrat Mourning

Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem

When warmer spring weighs in, she puts away

Her winter furs.  The spring makes storage sad.

Unlike her neighbors, then she feels the sway

Of minor sorrow, melancholy clad

In summer cotton.  Missing pony skin

(Her favorite) and her blackest rabbit fur,

She tries to blank out fox fur and its sin

And focus on the silk that almost makes her purr

(Until she thinks of raccoon coat, its weight

And warmth and stylishness).  She thinks of cap

Of white elán she bought at China’s wall

And one more piece, her favorite beaver wrap.

  The mink she never liked that much, too rough,

    But storing all the rest away, that’s tough.

© Phillip Whidden