Who Am I?

Posted byColleen M. ChesebroPosted inMy PoetryTags:, , , , ,

This is a bit of fun for dVerse, where Kim asks us to focus on a creature building its home. It’s spring in Michigan, and my neighbors send out messages on Facebook to warn of this wily creature.

I have a great sense of smell
and my hearing is swell,
but I have Mr. Magoo’s eyes

I make my home in a hole in the ground
not caring who’s den I’ve found—
under utility slabs is a great disguise

If you hear me hiss or yip, you’d better scurry
I’ll raise my tail, then you’d better worry
I’ll spray you, rain or shine!

In the winter, I don’t hibernate
I plug the entrance with leaves and sticks
we all burrow together underground

WHO AM I?

I’m the skunk that terrorizes this author’s backyard!

https://wordcraftpoetry.com/2023/05/01/announcing-around-the-campfire-literary-journal/

Published by Colleen M. Chesebro

An avid reader, Colleen M. Chesebro rekindled her love of writing poetry after years spent working in the accounting industry. These days, she loves crafting syllabic poetry, flash fiction, and creative fiction and nonfiction. In addition to poetry books, Chesebro’s publishing career includes participation in various anthologies featuring short stories, flash fiction, and poetry. She’s an avid supporter of her writing community on Word Craft Poetry.com by organizing and sponsoring a weekly syllabic poetry challenge, called #TankaTuesday, where participants experiment with traditional and current forms of Japanese and American syllabic poetry. Chesebro is an assistant editor of The Congress of the Rough Writers Flash Fiction Anthology & Gitty Up Press, a micro-press founded by Charli Mills and Carrot Ranch. In January 2022, Colleen founded Unicorn Cats Publishing Services to assist poets and authors in creating eBooks and print books for publication. In addition, she creates affordable book covers for Kindle and print books. Chesebro lives in the house of her dreams in mid-Michigan surrounded by the Great Lakes with her husband and two (unicorn) cats, Chloe & Sophie.

44 thoughts on “Who Am I?”

  5. No skunks here, Colleen, although sometimes one of our cats can smell just as bad! I love your ‘Who am I’ poem, with all the clues. I didn’t know skunks could get under utility slabs to make their homes!

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    1. Kim, I didn’t know anything about skunks. I was surprised last summer when this one showed up. He/She has burrowed under the slab. We going to add some used cat litter to the area. I think that might chase those “stinkers” away. Everyone around us has dogs, so it makes it hard to let them outside.

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    1. Oh, they’re horrible. They spray everything and you can’t get rid of the stink. We live near the woods, so the skunks are always around. They eat anything, so you have to be careful what you leave outside.

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  10. Appreciate your perspective on animal architecture! Wonderful exploration of the concept, great take and good write! Myrthful.

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    1. The city refuses to do anything with them, so the homeowners would have to band together and hire a contractor to trap and remove them. We all try to put up with them and live in some kind of harmony together. There are woods and wetlands all around our housing area. We live in their territory. Thanks, Franci. It was a fun poem to write.

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  12. They are cute, but boy the smell! We have one that I “smell” once in a while. We had a dog that always found them. I got good at my mixture to bath her in.

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  14. Never seen one of those in real life. And they burrow?! Woh?! They spray— does the atrocious smell ever fade?!
    So now I feel less annoyed about the moles that live in my yard. They eat all the tulip bulbs and ruin the landscape with mole hills.

    Are they loners, your skunks, or close knit families?
    Thanks for sharing. Blessings.

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  16. I didn’t know at first but you gave good clues. Yipes, that’s a toughie to have visiting your place. I wonder if wildlife control could trap the critter for you? There is a guy who lives near here that live traps animals and releases them on his property up north but I’m not sure if that include Pepes…

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