Cumberland
Island
Suzie
Siegel
Captured and collared,
the bobcats came to the island
safety.
Palmettos waved green in the dark
forests of live oak,
branches twisting, floating,
like long hair on a drowned woman.
Same as home, but not home,
for one. He swam back,
hating the sensation of salt water.
His mate went the other way.
###
I envy the unerring instinct,
the sense of home,
of the cat that survived.
But I am the other cat,
defiant and free,
lost at sea.
***
Suzie
Siegel was born and raised in the Dallas area. She worked
more than eighteen years as a reporter and editor at the Arkansas
Democrat in Little Rock, the New Orleans Times-Picayune
and the Tampa Tribune. Her poetry has been published in
Rolling Stone, the Southern Review, and elsewhere.
©
Suzie Siegel