Penelope Scambly Schott
Use Caution when Taking the Bull by the Horns
Wear leather gloves, thick skin, a scrim of gorgeous
ignorance.
Call for the bandilleros and the picadors.
Call for the doctor, call for the nurse,
call for the lady with the alligator purse.
You know, I knew that lady. She used to visit my mother.
The furs at her neck bit each other’s tails.
It was dangerous back in 1949:
the Italians were still starving and warehouses by the Thames
were soot black. My little sister almost died
because her throat was too small.
All my life I have listened for breathing.
When I am lucky, I can feel the earth inhale,
grasses rising like the messy coat
of a very old dog.
Who will listen for breaths when I am gone?
Who listened before I was born?
I must take the bull by the horns and leap onto
his humped back. We will chase that cow
over fresh moons.
Illy-illy-in-come-free.
Mother, I am hiding under the washtub.
Daddy, I am hiding under the lilacs.
I am holding my breath. Anyone here,
come find me.
I have been hiding for fifty years.
Duenna
This is the double bed
these are the dented pillows
this is the family dog
her yellow fur on the cotton sheets
her yellow fur on the crimson quilt
Fur on skin and skin on skin
slow wakings of a Saturday morning
rain on the tall windows
rain in the dark limbs of the firs
bamboo wind chime singing of rain
This is the double bed
these are the arms and legs
these are the lips touching the lips
and this is the yellow dog
unwilling to go out in the rain
Legs around legs and tongue to tongue
such heat beneath the crimson quilt
and oh, the old yellow bitch
who will ignore almost anything
just to stay here in our bed
Nothing surprises an old dog
Douglas firs rising into fog
winter rain sluicing the panes
wooden clang of the wind chime
the rock-rock-rocking of the bed
She and I have squatted in woods
and slept off fevers on long afternoons
so now I am floating somewhere else
and it’s just my very busy husband
whom the dog stares flat in the eye
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Penelope Scambly Schott's most recent books are May the Generations Die in the Right Order and A is for Anne: Mistress Hutchinson Disturbs the Commonwealth, a verse biography which won the Oregon Book Award for Poetry. She gets her sense of humor from her father and her dog. Most of life is so improbable that what doesn't make her weep makes her laugh.