Glenn G. Coats

Lessons

My friend Steve
asks me to join him
on a squirrel hunt;
shows me
how to sight down
the barrel
of a shotgun;
then off we go
into the forest
where we knock them
off limbs and branches
while
my ears ring
from the blasts;
we stuff them
into burlap sacks like
potatoes.

Thelma is Steve’s
mother
and she frowns when
we hold the bags open—
then shows us how
to dip them in water,
clip off feet and tails;
slice a circle
around each middle
and pull them apart.

She bakes
and makes us eat
each and every one
of them—
the meat is stringy
and laced
with buck shot—
can’t touch the custard
for dessert.

daylight and dusk
the same rabbit stretches
beneath the bird feeder

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About the Author

Glenn G. Coats lives with his wife, Joani, in Carolina Shores, North Carolina. His books include two Snapshot Press collections of haibun, A Synonym for Gone (2021) and Degrees of Acquaintance (2019); Furrows of Snow (Turtle Light Press, 2019), an honorable mention winner in the Haiku Society of America’s 2020 Merit Book Awards; and Another Lost Boat (Pineola Publishing, 2022).

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