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Monday, May 08, 2006

WE ARE HERE TODAY TO FREE A MOOSE HEAD NAMED BOB

by Rochelle Ratner

Bob's been incarcerated since he was apprehended
in transit at the Buffalo border after his owner
had agreed to sell him to an American buyer.
The Toronto Sun, April 6, 2006

She thinks of Ellis Island and all the immigrants detained

there before permitted entry, and how the people with
limps or poor eyesight tried to go through Canada instead.
Savvy enough to know forest paths wouldn't be silver-
paved, they expected moose to be roaming all around them,
barking at night like coyotes. When nothing went as
expected, they began to hunt the moose. They'd roast and
carve it, hang its head over their mantles. Every so often a
woman, lonely and cold, would throw her arms around his
neck, cuddle up against his soft brown face, and stroke his
antlers.


Rochelle Ratner's books include two novels: Bobby's Girl (Coffee House Press, 1986) and The Lion's Share (Coffee House Press, 1991) and sixteen poetry books, including House and Home (Marsh Hawk Press, 2003) and Beggars at the Wall (Ikon, October 2005). More information and links to her writing on the Internet can be found on her homepage: www.rochelleratner.com.