A CAT NAMED TURTLE

for a coworker named Karen

she called
her pet cat an
accessory – and I
thought about the
fur I once wore around
my neck when a teacher
screamed out right in class –
“What is that it looks like a
dead cat!” – but that wasn’t the
horror of his outburst at
all what was worse the way he
mispronounced my name.

-ryn gargulinski.03.2006