Contributor: Michael Estabrook

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Didn’t mean to pester you over the weekend
but I was worried because you didn’t call me on my birthday
like you usually do

Male lions will kill cubs sired by other males
if they catch them but they don’t eat them

So I was just checking to see if you were all right
I realize you’re in your “reclusive” phase
avoiding people, staying in with the curtains closed

Bats have colonized every continent except Antarctica
crowding beneath bridges, into attics, caves, and belfries

But as a recovering alcoholic
being alone all the time is a recipe for disaster
don’t forget your brush with death

Female Pine Processionary Moths live only one day enough time
to fly to a new tree have sex lay 200 eggs and die (of exhaustion)

Todd and Skip came over and I flew down
from Boston and we cleaned your house
there were even flies in your refrigerator!

The Outback’s nomadic pelican flocks fly
migrate and hunt together soaring on thermal winds

We removed 56 empty vodka bottles (the 2 liter ones)
and got you to the hospital, where you almost died
dude, what’s it gonna take?

Super Crocs grew 40 feet long 8 tons of terror attacking
even the mighty dinosaurs

I was so proud of you when you recovered
took up the piano again, learned the violin
joined a church, sang in the choir

Devilfish they are called today but the ancients knew them
and their Giant Squid cousins as The Kraken

But now you’re up to your old tricks again
not answering the phone, not calling your mother
it is so fucking tedious

Imagine if you dare a creature nine feet tall nine feet long
500 pounds, razor talons, a giant hooked beak – The Terror Bird

All you do is go to work come home
watch TV alone in the dark
that’s gotta make you crazy

Giant Huntsman Spiders big as dinner plates with long hairy
crab-like legs are the largest spiders in the world

When are you going to get that through your thick head
you can’t be solitary and stay off the sauce
it just doesn’t work that way

Since before the Dark Ages we have been lurking beneath
the freezing deep waters of Loch Ness

Well okay that’s it for now
take care of yourself
we miss you and we love you

Hyenas are vicious hunters bringing down
zebras giraffes and wildebeests laughing all the while


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Retired now writing more poems and working more
outside just noticed 2 Cooper’s hawks staked out
in our yard or above it I should say
which explains the disappearing chipmunks.