Whose Boy?

by Karen Friedland


Whose lanky boy is that,
walking awkwardly, endearingly, down the street?
He is our lanky boy.

Whose towering maple is that,
Half-dead, half majestically alive?
Again—ours, our streets.

Whose are these sauntering cats,
these aggrievedly-barking dogs, this late-summer,
almost-fall afternoon
that tastes like honey?

They belong to all of us—
this whole, wondrous slice of existence,

So lush,
the scene should be rendered in oil
on a vast canvas
as a testament to living.


* * * * *

"Whose Boy" is part of Karen Friedland's chapbook Tales from the Teacup Palace (Červená Barva Press, October 2020)

A nonprofit grant writer by day, Karen Friedland’s poems have been published in Nixes Mate Review, Writing in a Women’s Voice, the Lily Poetry Review, Vox Populi and others. Her book of poems, Places That Are Gone, was published in 2019 by Nixes Mate Books, her chapbook Tales from the Teacup Palace was published in October 2020 by Červená Barva Press. She lives in Boston with her husband, two cats and two dogs.