Whiskey
When the good dog
slips out of the back
of the pick-up
falls under
the horse trailer
done for
so dead
you don't even have
to shoot him
or the neighbor forgets
to set the brake
on the tractor
goes back
to check on the baler
and the field is
one of those
slippery slopes
or the gun goes bang
that wasn't loaded
on the Wednesday
after you drowned
the kittens
it's good to have
whiskey
to take the edge off –
even a woman
will tell you
that
When the good dog
slips out of the back
of the pick-up
falls under
the horse trailer
done for
so dead
you don't even have
to shoot him
or the neighbor forgets
to set the brake
on the tractor
goes back
to check on the baler
and the field is
one of those
slippery slopes
or the gun goes bang
that wasn't loaded
on the Wednesday
after you drowned
the kittens
it's good to have
whiskey
to take the edge off –
even a woman
will tell you
that
B.J. Buckley is a Montana poet and writer who has worked in Arts-in-Schools and Communities programs throughout the west for over 40 years. She is currently Writer-in-Residence at Sanford Cancer Center, Sioux Falls, SD. Her poems have appeared widely in both print and on-line journals. BJ's most recent book of poems is Corvidae -- Poems of Ravens, Crows, and Magpies, Lummox Press.
