KILL RATIO
by Patrick Theron Erickson
A certain kind of horse
is home to a livery stable
when a livery stable
without a horse
is no home at all
A livery stable
that is no home
to a horse
is yet a haven
for rodents
And the woodland owl
knows this
and waits
And we conclude
The owl is wise
because he doesn’t jump the gun
moving in for the kill
whittling away
the rat snake’s rations
raising the kill ratio
by one
one and done.
VACANCY
With inborn dexterity
he came to occupy
and then embody
the disparity between
humble beginnings
and lifetime achievement
without recourse
to a lifetime achievement award
and without rancor
And he never waffled
For the life of me
I cannot say
I do not wish him well
and Godspeed
and fain
would I not
gladly
share his lot
or at least
trade occupations
and inhabit new occupancies.
SLEAZY
A kiss
unless it leads
to a strip search
or a kiss off
is nothing
to write home about
except that you do
and your Facebook friends
misconstrue the kiss
for a kiss off
and the strip search
for a striptease
your home
away from home
So home
is no longer
where the heart is
no, not even
on your homepage.
BIO
Patrick Theron Erickson, a resident of Garland, Texas, a Tree City, just south of Duck Creek, is a retired parish pastor put out to pasture himself. Besides a chapbook, Better Late Than Never (The Orchard Street Press, 2022), his work has appeared in the anthology, SHARING THIS DELICATE BREAD: Selections from Sheila-Na-Gig online 2016-2021, in Grey Sparrow Journal, Tipton Poetry Journal, and Sheila-Na-Gig online, among other publications.