Do you really know how intelligent is your pet? "REALLY? It's eery at times, just downright scary.
Within two weeks after getting married, my wife, Karen, and I obtained a Siamese kitten, "Pudd'n." She was the self-appointed "Queen" and exalted ruler of our home. Correction, "our lives." Her realm lasted for 16 years, traveled with us, went to drive-in movies with us, all that kind of stuff. She was our first 'angel.'
But there was 'one' particular trait we never understood. One that had us nearly convinced that she was "not of this earth." She loved the television series, "The X-files." whenever Karen and I would sit down to watch the show and the music intro would begin, Pudd'n would come out from whichever bedroom she was in, jump upon the arm of the sofa and stay there like a statue and watch the entire episode. When it was over, she would return to the comfort of the bed. She never did this with other programs, just this one, week after week. and, the expression in her eyes while watching, let us believe that she actually understood the plot of the series.
I guess that the point of all this is, "Never underestimate what an animal is capable of "thinking, and doing." They'll surprise you time and time again. This is why the shelters are so important, and why everyone should have an "angel" in their home. Visit a shelter today.

richard riddle: 11-23-2016

even snakes make love

Dearest moth,
Just a week ago,
I feared you.

The way you bounce against things And recuperate
Like it never happened..

But now I see why
the hurt never bothered you.
Your only goal is a search for warmth
and light.
And nothing gets in your way.

I feared you.
But now I think
that everyone should be
just like you, Mr. Moth.

9/8/16

It's suburbia
When the dogs start howling with
Ambulance sirens

Spun around all night
like a spiders snack
twirled up in blankets
prey to the night.
The darkness is long
these times spinning
longer toward winter.
And the blankets
will multiply. A nest
and a web all at once
the fading of the light
down the dark tunnel.

calves and lambs gambol the fields
a welcome yearly sight
- if only they knew
they are surrounded by meat eating hunters
with barbecue and beer on their minds

Lost in narcotic prescriptions
all your chemistry
now an elixir tweaked
in the lab where hairless blind rats
are fed the drugs in your bathroom cabinet
caged to Mankinds search for immortality
sometimes you give them a cigarette and a tab of LSD
but mostly you watch them die and sell the poisoned outcome
to a national pest control conglomerate.

a rattle snake lives in my throat
fangs full of poison
it slithered in there when Eve and Adam
shared the forbidden fruit
its rattle sounds out when disturbed
and strikes with a painful bite
anyone who comes too close
to upsetting its comfort zone.

All the chainsaw death of forests
is witnessed by homeless creatures
on the run from apes called men
who make furniture from trees-
the slaughtered forest they used to live.