Holly Day’s poetry has recently appeared in Plainsongs, The Long Islander, and The Nashwaak Review. Her newest poetry collections are A Perfect Day for Semaphore (Finishing Line Press),  In This Place, She Is Her Own (Vegetarian Alcoholic Press), A Wall to Protect Your Eyes (Pski’s Porch Publishing), I’m in a Place Where Reason Went Missing (Main Street Rag Publishing Co.), The Yellow Dot of a Daisy (Alien Buddha Press), Folios of Dried Flowers and Pressed Birds (Cyberwit.net), and  Where We Went Wrong (Clare Songbirds Publishing).

A Great Beast, Waking and Stretching

The squirrels in my yard are erecting a temple to their god
some great, terrifying creature that will someday come down to Earth
rend its great, clawed hands through my garden, scattering
fistfuls of tulip and lily bulbs in its wake. At least that’s what I imagine

the squirrels are doing
as they run past my window again and again, carrying fistfuls and mouthfuls
of sticks and nuts up into the trees. Or it’s some kind of machine
designed to plow through the yard and uproot my house completely
some great squirrel bulldozer that will turn the entire block
back into a forest overnight. I can’t be sure what they’re doing, though

because they’re squirrels, and while I truly believe
that we’ve had this rivalry between us for years, there’s a good chance
that they don’t really think about me at all.