Second Tour
While my husband packed to fly back to Vietnam,
this time as a tourist instead of a soldier,
I drove to the zoo to say goodbye to the musk oxen
who were being shipped out early next morning
to Tacoma. We were getting lions instead.
When I got there, it was too easy to park.
The zoo was closing early so they wouldn’t let me in.
I went back to my car and slid into the driver’s seat.
Sobs tore from deep in my chest, I who had never
seen a musk ox and never cared until now.
Copyright Credit: Poem copyright ©2010 by Penelope Scambly Schott, from her most recent book of poems, Crow Mercies, Calyx Books, 2010. Poem first appeared in Arroyo Literary Review, Vol. 2, Spring 2010. Reprinted by permission of Penelope Scambly Schott and the publishers.