Pet Squirrel

Patrick Moran

She could be moody & very particular
about visitors. Her horoscope, which
remained a mystery, kept us guessing,
Taurus? Sagittarius? When she ran
away from home Officer Gillis assured
us that this was normal & that we could
expect a postcard in the mail tomorrow
or the day after. Instead of a postcard
we got a ransom note. Reggie wept, but
Lightning Eyes Margaret nailed a
hundred-dollar bill to a sycamore at the
bottom of the lane & crouched in a
miasma of cigarette smoke for an
answer.

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Patrick Moran is the author five books of poetry and the editor of an anthology of contemporary Scottish Poetry. He is a professor of creative writing at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

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