by Scott Wiggerman
You could coax it with feed,
pretend you’re a friend, even coo—
then grab it like a submarine sandwich
and pluck out a feather or two.
You could put on French affectations
and twist its stocky neck askew,
braise, broil, sauté, or grill it,
add leftovers to a Provençal stew.
You could pull an Ozzy,
chomp on its head, let profanities spew.
You could, of course, kick it,
as businessmen often do,
or stomp it with a well-placed heel
if it refuses to move or shoo.
You could act like a President
and shoot it right out of the blue,
or pose as a Prime Minister
and coat its feet with Superglue.
You could be shipped to Iraq,
sent off with a strong heave-to,
where pigeons are everyday people
but doves are far and few.
Scott Wiggerman has published one book of poetry, Vegetables and Other Relationships (Plain View Press, 2000) and has been published in dozens of journals, including Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, Windhover, Midwest Poetry Review, Spillway, New Texas, and Paterson Literary Review. Most recently, he has been published in the anthology Queer Collection (Fabulist Flash, 2007). In addition, he is one of the two “cats” (i.e., editors) of Dos Gatos Press, which publishes the annual Texas Poetry Calendar, now in its tenth year.