Two Poems by Jake Heller

A Chocolate Bar a Day…

It was raining pine needles the day our cat went missing
out and under the trout colored storm clouds
I searched and searched.
Mother stayed on the half finished half porch
(father took on yet another project to big for
himself that summer)
her back to the quiverings of adult voices and
the sitting room of our house
where the doctor was checking on Jimmy.
He had eaten one too many chocolate bars
‘a chocolate bar a day makes the doctor stay’,
the doctor said.

Checking under the shed and in the apple tree
gave me no luck.
But when
I went over to the ever creeping blackberry bush
in the far corner of the yard,
and stuck my hand in its center
I felt a lick
and out came our cat
with blackberry mush on his cat nose
and we ate blackberries until the doctor went home


Morning Dew

grass roots
long & holding
on tight
to clumps of dirt
in the morning dew

{Poetry by Jake Heller}