Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas is a 6-time Pushcart Prize nominee and Best of the Net nominee. She has authored 8 chapbooks and her latest full-length collection of poems: Epistemology of an Odd Girl, newly released from March Street Press. She is a recent winner of the Red Ochre Press chapbook competition for her manuscript Before I Go to Sleep. According to family lore, she is a direct descendent of Robert Louis Stevenson.
Oh Billy goat, I remember you
By Carol Lynn Grellas
Oh Billy goat, I remember you …
when we were small, how we prayed
for summer’s hillside in July
as baby’s breath and earth’s timer
served it overdone
to our unwavering delight,
and how this bequest formed
our finest pastime, as your leftovers
along with yellow star thistle,
strewn between feather top weeds,
pillowed the ride,
on the lid of a cardboard box …
Old oaks stood full in their greenery
their ceremonial dress,
and I watched with delight as my
Siamese cat swaggered around
fending off slithering snakes
as if we were her beloved kittens …
Thirty-five summers since,
and I yearn for the splendor
of yellow star thistle
on a hillside in July,
among the bramble of weeds,
with that old cat,
romping the trails behind.
