Dead Squirrel Elegy
by Linda Kleinbub
He looks like
a discarded stuffed animal
meets a piece of raw chicken
squirrel’s tail intact, identifiable
He lies as if sleeping
curled round for a nap
on a bed of pine
needles in spring
Eternally at peace
to decompose back to earth
Linda Kleinbub is the author of Appear to Dance (Pink Trees Press, 2024), Cover Charge (Autonomedia, 2022), and co-editor of the Silver Tongued Devil Anthology (Pink Trees Press, 2020). She earned her MFA in Creative Writing from The New School. She’s Founding Editor of Pink Trees Press, writing instructor for the International Women's Writing Guild, curator of Fahrenheit Open Mic, and contributing editor at Girls Write Now. She’s published in Best American Poetry, Brooklyn Rail, The Observer, Sensitive Skin Magazine, and many anthologies.
