Reprisals: A Poem by Mike Fiorto

Up in Shohola we met Nick Dillard,

He asked us to come to his house.

He had built it, he said, shingle and thatch,

Sometimes he lived there with his spouse.

She’s sick now, arthritis,

Too hard to come up; she stays in Stroudsburg these days.

He comes for the hunting,

Bears and coyote,

Been here since early this May.

Though bout’ seventy

He’s built like the dickens;

He must have been sturdy n’ his day.

The house, just like him,

Sharp, sound and not dirty,

Built like it’s here to stay.

On the wall we did see

Mounted bear heads.

They looked contented and gay.

Hacked off of their bodies

Their heads on the wall

Completed by a paw ashtray.

Course’ a mountain cabin

In them thar’ hills

Could only be missing the mark,

If it weren’t sporting a snarling coyote snout

Hung up for a hunter’s lark.

Now gaming is gaming

And killing is killing,

Nick Dillard’s the nicest of guys.

I shot him for dead

Chopped off his head

It hangs on the wall on high.