Vintage Colorado Poetry Poem of the Week August 16, 2004

"In Colorado, moose are most often found in North Park, but have been sighted in Middle Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, South Park, near Leadville, near Gunnison, near Yampa, northwest of Creede, south of Fraser, near Colorado Springs, and in Golden, west of Denver." -- Colorado Department of Wildlife

Moose. Photo credit: Rocky Mountain National Park.

Local poet Sandra McNew is past-president of Colorado Springs' Poetry West.  One of her poems was recently featured in the Sierra Club Yodeler, the San Francisco Bay Chapter's newspaper.

Charming Again

Just when I need him, a moose appears behind my house -- young, way out of range, with a nice little rack.  Wasn't I like this once? Wasn't my heaven as wide, wet, grassy, and here? Didn't I wander unslumped in streamy meadows, in willows, munching along, doing my work of surviving and having a little fun (every once in awhile I'd snort and give a watery zip of my heels). If I admired a man's colorful tie once or twice, this moose sports a less impeccable "bell," a tangle of skin and ratty hair that dangles from the neck -- oh,  odd and enticing forms of male endearment. A young, footloose, wandering animal like this -- a face like this, a shape like this -- remind even an imperturbable female of something.  Something                  perfect. And ludicrous.  Animal, teach me charming again.                                             --Sandra McNew First published in Springs Magazine. February 2002. Copyright (c) 2002 by Sandra McNew. Used with the author's permission.                                                                                                                                                                                         Home Table of Contents