Sturgeon's Law

Okay, evidently Peter and Kelli have started a (dare I say it?) meme of posting their first published poems. Since they're both in my "frequently read" section, and since my first poem is available online anyway, here goes. It was accepted in December 2003 and appeared in the Summer 2004 issue of Pivot, a good resource (with its online counterpart Expansive Poetry & Music Online) for formal poetry and occasional (and unfortunate) right-wing polemics. Anyway, here's my poem:


To a Sentinel Marmot

Warned by your trill, the colony
Has scurried to its burrow,
But you lie still with entrails staining
Your boulder-top, a barrow.

Tell us, you husk of altruism
Drizzling blood to feed
The foxes, alarm whistle mute,
Did you die satisfied?

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P. S. This poem is also going to be reprinted soon on Vintage Colorado Poetry (where another of my poems, "Pikes Peak Obscured," was the First Anniversary Poem) as part of a Memorial Day special on loss.