Cow Tipping
I'm not saying
I've tried these things
although I did climb a chain
link fence and swim nude
at the public pool,
right in the center of town and ripped
my shirt tearing away
when the constables arrived.
Oh that would have been a good one,
single mother
from over on Union Street
caught half dressed and gorgeous,
and not alone, either.
Not lonely at all. Different
town, different time. No fields
or cows, lots of young
stallions drinking their faces off
at the Onliwel Hotel, pushing
coloured balls around a table,
sniffing lines of cocaine
off the backs of toilets,
or the top of the Centipede game,
little white tubes following that neon
snake, birth to bomb. So it's tipping
in a way, but it wouldn't pay a babysitter
and once on the ground,
no matter how unexpected the shove,
I wasn't helpless. I could get up again,
snag my paycheck and jacket,
and walk the four blocks home.
Jude Goodwin's poems have been published in Burnside Review, Contemporary Verse 2, Comstock Review, White Pelican Review, and various online journals. They have won and placed well in the IBPC: New Poetry Voices competition, were shortlisted in the CBC Radio Literary Awards, and recently received Honorable Mention in the Jessie Bryce Niles Chapbook Competition. Jude is currently working on the manuscript for her first book of poetry. She lives with her daughter in Squamish, BC, Canada where she freelances as publisher/editor/author and illustrator for various websites, small journals and papers. For more information visit her website: judegoodwin.com