Ken Anderson

Thunder

Suddenly you crouched
on the sidewalk
the way you do
when I yell
at you
too near the street. Then you lurched
as if you’d learned
to dance.

The second seizure flipped you
onto your side
the way a calf is thrown, legs tied
with the flick
of a rope. Afterward, you stared
like a stuffed toy.

Now you curl
beside me
on the couch
the way you never do —aloof
as a star— unless some mean, ol’ thunder’s shouting
from afar. Then you bark
at fate
and walk all
over me
as if you were a sweeter breed
who liked
to lie
in a lap.

Samantha, Toto, Cairn— why do you sit
so close, panting sociably, you
who are the Queen of Snoot? What angry voice
of thunder
do you hear
that I can’t hear
with your hairy, terrier ear?

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Island of Wak-Wak Press (Orebro, Sweden) recently released Ken Anderson’s The Ward at Twilight: Goth Poems, nominee for the 2025 Elgin Award. A year ago, Red Ogre Review Books (L.A.) released his The Goose Liver Anthology (Mother Goose Meets Edgar Lee Masters’ Spoon River Anthology), also a nominee for the 2025 Elgin Award. His first poetry book was The Intense Lover. Coffin Bell Journal nominated his poem “Blood Quartet” for the 2024 Best of the Net anthology. He was a Finalist in the 2021 Saints and Sinners poetry contest. 

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