….
Raccoon Latrine
….
Rocky stopped coming to the raccoon latrine
When it just became less cool
He fired up cigarettes slashing
Twigs under tires trapped
Sewer-parked, where Rocky,
reaching
Up, only needed still-smoking engines to get High.
……Like climbing
Skyward back of forty-five main, scratching
Names in posts for them both: she’d possum,
Whip-smart, cracking jokes and firewood. Promises made & broken — Sewer rails jack-hammered his heart.
…..No one could tie that girl down.
…………………………………………….Last seen
By the side of the road in Austin. Not like that – no, snacking.
….
This is the title poem from the chapbook Raccoon Latrine by Ellen Ferguson (Finishing Line Press), and can be found at https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/raccoon-latrine-by-ellen-ferguson/
Raccoon Latrine invites readers to sit outside for a while, outside themselves, outside their back steps, outside all the other things. These poems suggest there’s somewhere else to go, somewhere in nature. The more intrepid short poems lightly massage the memories that rise in the evening while others, afraid to go out at night, watch the raccoons like television as they look for a place on the porch to relax. Sometimes experiencing nature fully is as simple as turning the page, whether you are a foster beagle, a character on the Sopranos, or anyone else you will find hanging out on the porch, or just under it.
Ellen Ferguson’s poetry chapbook Small Fiasco was published by Finishing Line Press. She wrote the “Diversity in the News” column for McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. She is the author of the book Can Creativity Be Taught? Her nonfiction has been published in Kugelmass, the Journal of Literary Humor. She has been a 30/30 poet for Tupelo Press three times, each time publishing 30 poems in a month. She worked for The New Yorker Magazine and SPY before she started teaching English and couldn’t stop. She is a recipient of the University of Chicago Outstanding Educator Award. Her co-authored screenplay “Demo Queen” was a semi-finalist in humor in the Screenplay Festival.
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