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Curious Couplets

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Goose Lady

When driving through a blizzard, Marge
Espied a goose, not over large.
Determinedly it marched along—
One wing dragged as it sang its song
And whistled wee wee as it went—
A crippled chick, quite innocent.

What could she do, or anyone?
The gosling’s time would soon be done,
So out she hopped and grabbed that goose
(Who soon would freeze while running loose)
And put it in with ducks she had.
Bright-eyed they were, and feather-clad.
And ere a quarter moon was done
The injured goose and ducks were one—
A tribe composed of goose and duck.
I must end now, the deal is struck!

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A Canine Kiss

A dog kissed me the other day.
He did it, I presume, in play.
Immaculate, so curled and white,
His ears appeared to be in flight—
A pup so sensitive that he
Might well have been an entity
Part dog, part personality.

His blackened snout, ink blot on pink,
That sent me running to the sink
Was nothing that I like to see—
His action stays a mystery.

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Sally Cook is both a poet and a painter of magical realism. Her poems have also appeared in Blue Unicorn, First Things, Chronicles, The Formalist Portal, Light Quarterly, National Review, Pennsylvania Review, TRINACRIA, and other electronic and print journals. A six-time nominee for a Pushcart award, in 2007 Cook was featured poet in The Raintown Review. She has received several awards from the World Order of Narrative and Formalist Poets, and her Best American Poetry Challenge-winning poem “As the Underworld Turns” was published in Pool.  

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29 Responses

  1. Roy Eugene Peterson

    Sally, those are two cute fun poems to read. I am rather fond of animal poems and both of these charm.

    Reply
    • Sally Cook

      Roy, I am happy to know that you enjoyed both. The subjects were unusual and this was an immediate attraction for me. Animals live in our world, but are not of it.

      Reply
  2. Susan Jarvis Bryant

    Dear Sally, what a couple of heart-lifting, sunshine delights – two poems that have me smiling. The Goose Lady is a woman after my own heart. I would have tucked that wandering gosling under my arm and introduced him to the fluffy-duck tribe. I hope the goose is thriving… all thanks to an act of kindness that cheers me no end.

    I especially like your ‘Canine Kiss’… I have been snogged by a dog on more than one occasion and you have captured the experience with poetic aplomb. I especially like the description of the amorous chappie: “…Immaculate, so curled and white, /His ears appeared to be in flight” – gorgeous… at a polite distance.

    Thank you for these wonderful poems.

    Reply
  3. Brian A Yapko

    These are both exceedingly charming, Sally. That is one fortunate goose! Your poetry about the interactions between humans and friendly animals is truly heartwarming. I’m going to go hug my dog now.

    Reply
    • Sally Cook

      Brian, thanks for weighing in on the side of the animals. Just knowing that you hug your dog adds an extra dimension to what I know of you.

      Reply
  5. Yael

    Your story telling is totally adorable and highly entertaining, thank you! Having had rescue ducks and geese and unwanted dog kisses which sent me running for the sink, I can relate well.

    Reply
    • Sally Cook

      Tael – That goose “WEE WEED” so much they decided o call him WEE .

      Now a full grown and weighty goose, he waddles over to Marge plunks his great goose butt down next to her, scaring her half to death and shouts WEE Wee in deep goosely tones.

      I guess no good deed goes unpunished.

      Reply
  6. Sally Cook

    Dear Susan ;
    Animals can be fun! Well, I already knew that about you from your takes on the cat George. Once one takes the time to know them and they come out of their shells, so to speak, you find even a toad has its hopes and dreams.~

    Reply
    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      Dear Sally, I agree with you wholeheartedly… animals are most certainly fun and I believe all animals have their hopes and dreams… George Lionel is full of them. I love it that all creatures have their own personalities. As a child, I had a pet guinea pig called Pepper. He was as ferocious as a pit bull and had the jealousy of Othello. Playing with my brother incurred his wrath. He growled and fussed… he demanded undivided attention and was most charming if he got his own way. He lives on within my heart to this day.

      Reply
  7. .Sally Cook

    To Susan J. B. –
    My original response to you ended up several responses down. Hope you can find it.

    Reply
  8. Cheryl Corey

    I love the stories about animals that make odd friends. I’m not a fan of dog slobber, however.

    Reply
  9. Margaret Coats

    Sally, I like the unexpected traditional poetic touches “ere a quarter moon was done” and “I must end now.” They fit the farmyard nicely. And I see that while these are “Curious Couplets,” you slip a triplet into “A Canine Kiss,” just as our great English masters of heroic couplets might do. Shows you have an array of resources at your fingertips!

    Reply
    • Sally Cook

      Dear Margaret –
      I always look forward to your responses, as they never fail to give me something I had not thought of. Thanks again !

      Reply
  10. Gary Borck

    I really enjoyed your poems, Sally, especially ‘A Canine Kiss’.

    Your good use of rhyme, vocabulary and language produced two witty stories in a classical humorous style.

    Well written, Sally.

    Reply
  11. Sally Cook

    Dear Gary —
    What more could one ask for – an intelligent and favorable response to poems on impossible subjects, both of which came from impossible subjects !
    Please stick around the site; people like you are always welcome.

    Reply
  12. C.B. Anderson

    I don’t believe, Sally, that animals have hopes and aspirations, because they have no egos. But it does seem that something rubs off on them when they interact with us, just as we feel something deep and ancient when that happens. Imagine what it must have been like for those humans who first domesticated animals. When I was young, I was entranced by Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan series. Tarzan formed bonds with many of the animals in his African habitat, and our own encounters with animals certainly stick to us (and I don’t mean dog drool). Your poems often help me see more clearly the mysterious things happening in my own backyard. Two doves have taken up residence in the dwarf blue spruce right next to where I sit when I am on my patio. Aside from an occasional wary (and beady) glance, they leave me alone and go about their business, regaling me with frequent coos and the whistling their wings produce when in flight.

    Reply
    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      C.B., I love your comment… especially the picture of the doves. Birds fascinate me. They are so tuned in to Earth’s rhythms and each other – starling murmurations amaze me. As for animals having “no hopes and aspirations because they have no egos” – I think I live with the exception to that rule. Our feline overlord (George Lionel) thinks very highly of himself. He knows he deserves oyster suppers. Meow Mix is beneath a cat of his caliber and his hopes are high. How do I know?… George Lionel has a special way of communicating… it’s spooky. 😉

      Reply
      • Margaret Coats

        Susan, your George Lionel may have the most regal of feline egos, but all of my cats have had egos, too, and of varied sorts. George Lionel has the same taste for oysters as Dr. Samuel Johnson’s cat Hodge, which must prove that he is well suited to his literary domicile.

    • Sally Cook

      CB, I think that you are mistaken when you say animals have no hopes and aspirations. Even a toad has aspirations and dreams, and knows to express gratitude. They are limited, of course, but from Susan’s tales of George the cat and my own experiences with various species, I have observed, I know this is true.

      Reply
      • C.B. Anderson

        So you say, Sally. In reality, animals do not plan, but follow the same instinctive course year after year, and there is no limit to the human capacity for projection. Show me a cat (or a toad) that refers to itself as “I” or one that has ever written a sonnet. Attributing self-consciousness to plants or. animals is just silly.

  13. Sally Cook

    Deear Margaret –
    You never write anything to me that does not result in a further investigation or illumination of something I thought I knew. You push me to know more, and for that I am very grateful.

    Reply
  14. Sally Cook

    Oh, Kip, of course animals are not a higher species, and cannot cry, write sonnets, or perform human actions. But they do have preferences and can imitate. I have had cats who turned up their noses at cat food and would eat only human food and only their favorites.

    I have seen the ghost of a cat; not something wispy, but a solid, 3 dimensional ghost. I refuse to limit myself to believing only what I have been told is rational. If I experience something you have not, does that mean your contradiction means more than my experience?
    Come on.

    Reply
    • Yael

      Animals plan all the time. My dog sure does and so do my cats.
      When I was a young teen I got a pony and started riding all over the country side with my friends who also had ponies. Along the way we met adults who had big horses, some of them very fancy sports horses. We met a man at the farrier who liked to show jump and his sport horse was getting older and he figured he would sell him to someone who just wanted to go on easy rides and buy himself a younger jumper. His older horse was in great shape and loved to be ridden, but every time a prospective buyer showed up the horse was lame and limping badly. This went on for a while until the man realized that he could not sell that horse, so he kept him. The horse never went lame again.
      Some time after this I loaned my pony to a pony-less friend, so she could ride a few rounds through the pasture with my riding friends. I waited for them back at their barn. They returned almost immediately, all scared because my pony was limping pitifully. I examined her hoofs and legs and couldn’t find anything wrong, so I had my suspicions. I led her away from the barn a short span, onto the road home, then I jumped on her back and gave her the go home signal. She was practically prancing, with her tail held high, and no more lameness at all.
      Another girl tried to ride her and my pony tried to crush her knee against a tree. I was shocked because she never did that to me.

      Reply
      • Sally Cook

        Dear Yael –

        One of my cats. Murphides, a black and tan tiger, had learned to bark. At first we thought it was a small dog in our back porch, but it had to be he. However, he was no show-off, and refused to perform on command. Nonetheless, you would hear four short sharp barks in the porch, and on checking, would see only a rather smug looking, smiling tiger.

        One night, after he was gone, I kept hearing a sound like a basketball hitting the back of the house. Thinking it was some neighborhood ruffian, I sneaked out to catch a glimpse, but there was no one there. And then I heard Murphi8des four short, sharp barks,
        I invited him in. On cold icy nights I often think of my barking friend and hope he'[s here in some snug corner, dreaming of blue skies and the sharp odor of catnip.

  15. Yael

    A sneaky barking cat sounds amazing. I hope to see all our beloved animals in heaven some day soon. Without them it just wouldn’t be…Heaven.

    Reply
  16. Sally Cook

    Could God refuse them? I hope not. During my lifetime they have given me so much joy.
    Now I am thinking of one, smoky grey and white long haired beast named – Grey. It seemed right.
    Grey was a pack rat. He would pick up anything bright and shiny he could carry in his sharp ivory fangs, then hide it and wait for me to discover it.
    4To him it was a game. But more than that, he loved money. If I made the mistake of leaving my purse on the bed, Grey would extract a twenty and away he would go, busily trotting off to find a corner to stuff it in.
    A really fun animal !

    Reply

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