Mr.Owl And Chucky Poem by Richard George

The Jewish single Mom in Arizona
told Joan, her daughter,
to watch for javelinas
(the piggy things with teeth)
and take good care of Bobby.
Bobby brought their pets along,
in one hand the squirrel,
on the other Mr.Owl:
they played an afternoon
under desert skies of cosmic immensity.
The next day
Bobby discovered chess.

He left the pets to Joan.
'You can't play chess with a SQUIRREL! '
Mr.Owl
had other ideas.

When their sun went down
they atomized in-
side his Bishops and his Knights;
wheeling around enemy Kings
paralysed as rabbits
or swooping from the second rank
to deal the death-blow.
In 1972,
Bobby discovered - silence:
they were packed away.

Back they went to flesh and bone -
what else could they do? -
and four hard eyes
in a Russian fir scanned the board
for gifted children.