I Love Those
Stags
I mounted the fake stag.
This one had necklaces hanging on his antlers.
I predicted he could actually hear me.
I was tired.
See, I had been blanching and icing all day.
Also making delicately fried chicken.
I provided cloth napkins for everyone.
They all came over and we drank.
Some said this was a happy moment.
Some promised to never return.
I mounted a cold fake animal in the night.
The highway glittered out like real America racing in circles.
Why, why, why, did they all not go home?
I provided chicken, napkins, opportunity—all of these things.
Still, those crazy cold stags refused to leave.
With a tender stomachache I pretended to dry heave into a bucket.
This sent them galloping into the uncertain night.
Natalie Lyalin was born in Leningrad and currently lives in Philadelphia. She is the author of Pink & Hot Pink Habitat (Coconut Books, 2009) and a graduate of the MFA Program for Poets and Writers at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She is the co-founder and co-editor of GlitterPony Magazine.
