WANTED

William Blake is lost,
the sodden poster claims,
one thousand dollar reward.
Frantic letters bleed,
coloring one cat red.

William Blake lurking
near my telephone pole?
Someone tore every yellow
and gray feather off a warbler,
so tiny, so many syllables

I could not speak them.
William Blake devours fresh
kill. A poet, he does not
apologize for spying,
for pouncing or dying.

Fierce and self-employed,
who will he not sacrifice?
Worth almost any purse
to someone, William Blake’s
remorseless meow.

ξ

Marion Brown lives in Yonkers, NY. Her chapbooks, published by Finishing Line Press, are Tasted and The Morning After Summer. Her poems and reviews have appeared in Maine Review, Stone Canoe, DIAGRAM, Kestrel, Poetry International, and the Women’s Review of Books. Marion serves on the Advisory Committee of Slapering Hol Press, the Program Committee of the Hudson Valley Writers Center, and the National Council of Graywolf Press.