Poetry

Chocolate Waters

DEAD ANIMAL #5: Prince

Prince, Grandma Waters’ house. Statesboro, GA. 1959

He was a Doberman Pinscher
allowed to lay on my bed at night
to protect me

handsome
regal
especially before they trimmed his ears
his tail
Those ugly white adhesive bandages
How I suffered with him

One day my brother, Bob, tied him to his bicycle –
when Prince tried to escape
the bicycle followed
I witnessed his terror

A few years later when I came home from school
No Prince
Mom was wearing a beaver coat that day
and Prince
probably thinking it was another animal
playfully nipped at the coat
Always terrified of him
Mom called Uncle Merle in distress
Prince had “turned” on her
Together they put him down

FIFI

Mom, Fifi And Me 1964

was the only pet
Mom ever loved
A French Poodle
who lived a long and happy life and
died peacefully in her sleep
When my mother gets to heaven
it will not be Jesus she longs to see

Chocolate Waters began writing poems when she was eight. Called “the Poet Laureate of Hell’s Kitchen,” she has received many grants and fellowships, produced four books and been published hundreds of times in both print and on-line journals. Her latest collection, Poetry Slut/Poetry Saint, will be produced by Eggplant Press next year. The Greatest Hits of Chocolate Waters, a “Sapphic Classic” chosen by Sinister Wisdom (the longest-running Lesbian magazine in the U.S.) will appear sometime in 2022.