bobcat
one summer
my brother and I
once tried to lure a bobcat
into the house
our parents were at work
and we were in the kitchen
making sandwiches for lunch
when we saw the bobcat
tiptoeing through the back yard
sniffing here
pissing there
so my brother hatched a plan
we’d leave the back door open
he placed a couple pieces of bologna
on the threshold
and a couple more on the linoleum floor
like a trail of breadcrumbs
for Hansel the wild cat
my brother told me to stand on the counter
it was my job to shut the door
once the bobcat was inside
my brother had a heavy duty
butterfly net
it was a pillowcase sewn onto
a fishing net frame with a four-foot pole
it was an idiot plan
I thought it would never work
no way that wild cat would be stupid enough
to enter the house
but he did
he must have been real hungry
because he picked up the scent of that bologna
like someone had rung a dinner bell
my brother eyed me from the refrigerator
when the bobcat paused at the doorstep
it probably smelled us
heard our hearts beating
sensed our fear
because it grabbed the bologna
then took off in a sprint
leaving the rest behind
my brother blamed me for scaring it off
it was probably for the best
I’m pretty sure once that door was closed
and the bobcat was inside
it wouldn’t have let something like a fishing net
stop it from hurting us both
preferably my brother first
©2024 Kurt Newton All rights reserved.
Kurt Newton latest can be found in God’s Cruel Joke, Rebel Poetry, Skewies Award Anthology, and Cajun Mutt Press. His 2023 chapbooks, A Troubled Sleep and The Ever-Evolving Alphabet, are still available from back room poetry.