Danny P. Barbare has been published recently in Plainsongs, North Dakota Quarterly, and DASH. He attended Greenville Technical College where his poetry won the Jim Gitting’s Award. He lives in the Upstate of the Carolinas with his wife and family and sweet dog Miley.

The Squirrels Poem

The squirrel wanted to be
   A poem
So I told it to hop from word
   To word
And pause for awhile to
   Think
Then get down to the nut of
   It
Or plant the seed in the
   Earth
To grow into a tree one day
   For a collection
Or just save it for a winter day.

An Acorn

A squirrel knawing on acorns by day
dreaming of the orange moon
on crisp nights
getting prepared for the bitter cold
those pointed sharp tips of the wind
autumn’s glass
a thin shell of sleep
that might sprout into an oak
sitting on the horizon of a squirrel’s mind
an acorn bouncing down the sidewalk
wearing a wooden hat
and a leaf and stem over its shoulder.

The Battle of Autumn

The leaves have begun
   Falling
Soon I’ll be raking.
Pushing a squeaky wheel
   Barrow.
The tarpaulin being drug
   Across the grass.
The piles and piles of wind.
The dried bloody colors
   Of the sun.