Brown and White and My New Poem

Deer are good companions during cold winter

along with my little dog that barks at them.

When inside, her barking scares them away

but outside they see her and are slow to move.

But deer aren’t always patient with little dogs

when busy finding food among the odd growth.

One day, annoyed at my barking little dog,

a doe came forward and stomped on her back.

My dog ran back to the house anxious to enter

and bolted up the stairs into the closet

embarrassed by her lack of courage,

hurt by the encounter that surprised her.

For weeks she could not climb the stairs

and each day I lifted her into my arms

and carried her like a little baby outside

so she could go on her excursions.

Finally, she recovered from the injuries

and went in back and looked for new signs

of deer that might be patient one day

and annoyed at little dogs the next.

I remember my own barking days

when I stood up tall to trouble

and dared the beasts to come

so I could chase them all away.

But now I fall prey to bigger things

that are not so scared of old men

and want to show me their displeasure

by chasing me back up the stairs.

Copyright 2017, Sporting Chance Press

Norris is the author of the Brown and White, a fictionalized memoir published by Sporting Chance Press that is available through Amazon. The book is about a young man's freshman year at the late 1960s in Chicago. It's about changing neighborhoods and challenges, a humorous and positive book.

Brown and White and My Poem

Mice come into the house from cold fall air
and haunt my kitchen until I set traps for them.
My neighbor tells me they must make a home
out in the old pile of logs where the rabbits go.


But there's something spiritual in my wood pile
it holds relics of my old apple tree
and I can't bring myself to get rid of the logs
summer home of mice and hiding place for rabbits.

But like all dead things I hold onto,  it brings trouble,
memories of mistakes I have made that sneak up
and cry out on these cloudy winter days
scolding me for what I failed to do in summer.

So on these cold mornings when nothing is warm
and even the squirrels won't come out of their nests,
I sometimes battle ghosts stuck in my head
like mice that come in from the cold, haunting my kitchen.

Copyright 2017, Sporting Chance Press

Norris is the author of the Brown and White, a fictionalized memoir published by Sporting Chance Press that is available through Amazon. The book is book about a young man's freshman year at the late 1960s in Chicago. It's about changing neighborhoods and challenges, but it is most of all a humorous and positive book.