PALMETTO POEM: IF, THEN

By Ed Gold, special to Charleston Currents

If two red-tailed hawks nest in your tree,
then call your sister and tell her to sell the Studebaker.

If one cloud breaks off and fights the current,
then name your daughter Linoleum.

If a cardinal chases a bluejay from your feeder,
then delete your brother’s number from your phone.

If your sister calls back and refuses to sell,
then place three ice cubes around the orchid’s stalk.

If your daughter doesn’t like her name,
then change your will and give her the Studebaker.

If the bluejay pecks the cardinal in the head,
then put your brother back on speed dial.

If you don’t forget the cubes,
then the cloud may float back into formation.

If you can remember where the hawks used to nest,
then the orchid may bloom again next year.

Charleston resident Ed Gold has a chapbook, Owl, and poems in the New York Quarterly, Kakalak, Window Cat Press, Kansas Quarterly, Cimarron Review, Cyclamens and Swords, Poet Lore, Gargoyle, Rat’s Ass Review, Passager and many others. A native of Baltimore, Gold taught at the University of Maryland for 15 years and is now a writer, editor and writing trainer for various government agencies and large corporations.  In the spring of 2015, Gold won the Kinloch Rivers Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of South Carolina. Gold lives in Charleston with his wife, Amy Robinson.