A young sow, having never witnessed
a nest being built,
starts uprooting dead weeds
and carrying bundles in her mouth.
She drags them into her sty, making
a dry mattress for herself.
She figures out how to get wide sticks
through a narrow entrance.
She climbs into her nest -
flops onto her side for a moment,
then gets up to stand
a few feet away to look at it.
It’s a true work of genius.
It is not derivative. It is new.
----------
Dennis Rush served in the U.S. Air Force from 1989 until 1995 as a computer technician for the Strategic Air Command. He is a graduate of the University of Nebraska at Omaha and has an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College. He lives in Berlin Heights, Ohio. He has two books of poetry, What Are the Rich Doing Tonight? and MAYFIELD, both published by Dos Madres Press in 2022.
