It comes into the yard again,
trips the motion light.
Comes from the wood
behind the neighbor’s
rickety barn
and skulks
to the edge
of our busy road.
Skulks and shrinks back
from where cars do not care
about kids crossing
and motorcycles drag after midnight.
Where sirens
scream at all hours
for there is always a fire,
a crime,
a shattered hip,
a toddler
choking on a grape
the mother
neglected to slice.
Jason Tandon is the author of four books of poetry including, The Actual World and Give over the Heckler and Everyone Gets Hurt, winner of the 2006 St. Lawrence Book Award from Black Lawrence Press. His poems have appeared in many journals and magazines, including Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, Beloit Poetry Journal, Barrow Street, and Esquire. He is a Senior Lecturer in the Arts & Sciences Writing Program at Boston University.