This revised poem Copyright © 2010 by Michael Smetzer
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Upside down beside the walk, a doped squirrel hung on a tree, a tag on his ear, a twitch in his nose, and a sad little look for me. “Squirrel,” I said, “You’re dull as lead. What can your trouble be?” But well I knew the drugs they brew for modern zoology. To hang in the air as dull as a bear asleep in a sewer drain. To stare at a man who is reaching a hand to staple a tag by your brain. To twitch like a sprout that is twisting about under a new-paved lane. To look down at me here under your tree and not even know to complain.(first published in Mostly Maine)
