Clark Gable’s Dog                                                           

If you’re a wild horse you’re a spotted owl.
Only buckaroos should sport a silk scarf in winter.
If you’re a spotted owl it’s irrelevant how many people hate you.
At the post office the cowman who wears old-fashioned
under-slung boots sics his dog on a woman in black tights.
Is the woman in tights a spotted owl? Or a journalist.
Journalists, like spotted owls differ in gene sequence
from others of their same species. Both roost
in the ante room of speculation.

Cut down all the trees,
blame the spotted owl, graze all the grass,
blame the wild horse, read the real news,
blame the journalist who covers
the wild foal stampeded in winter—its popsicle toes.