If we were to choose our lusts as we choose pets,

would we go to the shop or the shelter?  At the shop

would we pick the pitiful one that gets

trampled in the wood chips?  Or would we stop

first at the shelter to gape at the ones slated

for execution?  Whatever, they’d whine from their cages

or huddle in a corner or spring up elated

as if our presence were the fact of love, ages

in the making.  And if we were to take one home

after the obligatory neutering and vaccination,

do you suppose it would feel at ease to roam

our rooms and halls in continual elation,

snuffling a crotch or purring under a touch?

Or would our attention even matter that much?

Greg Keeler’s latest of six collections of poetry is Almost Happy (Limberlost Press, 2010).  Garrison Keillor has read his poems on three segments of Writers' Almanac; his song, “WD-40 Polka,” has been featured on NPR’s Car Talk; he has performed his songs on NPR, PBS, ESPN and BBC4 Radio; he has been a cartoonist for Canada's, The Walrus; he illustrated Jim Harrison’s “Livingston Suite”; his memoir, Waltzing With the Captain:  Remembering Richard Brautigan, was published in ’04 by Limberlost Press, and his memoir, Trash Fish, was published in ‘08 by Counterpoint Press.