{"id":19091,"date":"2025-03-18T11:00:21","date_gmt":"2025-03-18T16:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/?p=19091"},"modified":"2025-03-26T11:17:15","modified_gmt":"2025-03-26T16:17:15","slug":"what-if-the-symbol-were-a-puppy-tinka-and-the-magic-beans-needing-feed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/2025\/03\/18\/what-if-the-symbol-were-a-puppy-tinka-and-the-magic-beans-needing-feed\/","title":{"rendered":"What If the Symbol Were A Puppy?, Tinka and the Magic Beans, &amp; Needing Feed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-large-font-size\"><strong>What If the Symbol Were a Puppy?, Tinka and the Magic Beans, &amp; Needing Feed<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-social-links is-content-justification-right is-layout-flex wp-container-core-social-links-is-layout-765c4724 wp-block-social-links-is-layout-flex\"><li class=\"wp-social-link wp-social-link-facebook  wp-block-social-link\"><a 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d=\"M12,4.622c2.403,0,2.688,0.009,3.637,0.052c0.877,0.04,1.354,0.187,1.671,0.31c0.42,0.163,0.72,0.358,1.035,0.673 c0.315,0.315,0.51,0.615,0.673,1.035c0.123,0.317,0.27,0.794,0.31,1.671c0.043,0.949,0.052,1.234,0.052,3.637 s-0.009,2.688-0.052,3.637c-0.04,0.877-0.187,1.354-0.31,1.671c-0.163,0.42-0.358,0.72-0.673,1.035 c-0.315,0.315-0.615,0.51-1.035,0.673c-0.317,0.123-0.794,0.27-1.671,0.31c-0.949,0.043-1.233,0.052-3.637,0.052 s-2.688-0.009-3.637-0.052c-0.877-0.04-1.354-0.187-1.671-0.31c-0.42-0.163-0.72-0.358-1.035-0.673 c-0.315-0.315-0.51-0.615-0.673-1.035c-0.123-0.317-0.27-0.794-0.31-1.671C4.631,14.688,4.622,14.403,4.622,12 s0.009-2.688,0.052-3.637c0.04-0.877,0.187-1.354,0.31-1.671c0.163-0.42,0.358-0.72,0.673-1.035 c0.315-0.315,0.615-0.51,1.035-0.673c0.317-0.123,0.794-0.27,1.671-0.31C9.312,4.631,9.597,4.622,12,4.622 M12,3 C9.556,3,9.249,3.01,8.289,3.054C7.331,3.098,6.677,3.25,6.105,3.472C5.513,3.702,5.011,4.01,4.511,4.511 c-0.5,0.5-0.808,1.002-1.038,1.594C3.25,6.677,3.098,7.331,3.054,8.289C3.01,9.249,3,9.556,3,12c0,2.444,0.01,2.751,0.054,3.711 c0.044,0.958,0.196,1.612,0.418,2.185c0.23,0.592,0.538,1.094,1.038,1.594c0.5,0.5,1.002,0.808,1.594,1.038 c0.572,0.222,1.227,0.375,2.185,0.418C9.249,20.99,9.556,21,12,21s2.751-0.01,3.711-0.054c0.958-0.044,1.612-0.196,2.185-0.418 c0.592-0.23,1.094-0.538,1.594-1.038c0.5-0.5,0.808-1.002,1.038-1.594c0.222-0.572,0.375-1.227,0.418-2.185 C20.99,14.751,21,14.444,21,12s-0.01-2.751-0.054-3.711c-0.044-0.958-0.196-1.612-0.418-2.185c-0.23-0.592-0.538-1.094-1.038-1.594 c-0.5-0.5-1.002-0.808-1.594-1.038c-0.572-0.222-1.227-0.375-2.185-0.418C14.751,3.01,14.444,3,12,3L12,3z M12,7.378 c-2.552,0-4.622,2.069-4.622,4.622S9.448,16.622,12,16.622s4.622-2.069,4.622-4.622S14.552,7.378,12,7.378z M12,15 c-1.657,0-3-1.343-3-3s1.343-3,3-3s3,1.343,3,3S13.657,15,12,15z M16.804,6.116c-0.596,0-1.08,0.484-1.08,1.08 s0.484,1.08,1.08,1.08c0.596,0,1.08-0.484,1.08-1.08S17.401,6.116,16.804,6.116z\"><\/path><\/svg><span class=\"wp-block-social-link-label screen-reader-text\">Instagram<\/span><\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Tricia Knoll<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">__________<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:25px\"><strong>What If the Symbol Were A Puppy?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\" style=\"letter-spacing:px\"><br>The puppy promised<br>its only life<br>to comfort, heal<br>to the end of each day,<br>attending even night screams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\" style=\"letter-spacing:px\">What if it were taught with patience<br>not to bite or make war on heels and fingers<br>for a reward that offers love,<br>a chance to lick the feet<br>of others clean of road dirt<br>while we are herded<br>toward compassion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\" style=\"letter-spacing:px\">What if we took vows<br>to care for each other<br>for life, to love despite<br>indiscretions, misbehaviors,<br>or indigestions of chicken feet?<br>To come to an end gently,<br>slumping down to inevitability<br>without judgment or remorse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\" style=\"letter-spacing:px\">What if it were a puppy<br>instead of a lamb?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">__________<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:25px\"><strong>Tinka and the Magic Beans<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Neighbors all knew Eddie and Tinka,<br>his West Highland Terrier.<br>He spent hours smoking cigars<br>on a bench in his small backyard,<br>framed in a trumpet vine that curled<br>to the gutters. Alone after his wife died.<br>He told stories about his childhood<br>picking watercress up the hill<br>near a stream now culverted,<br>greens for his family, poor and large.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">In September Tinka was gone.<br>His magic beans withered.<br>That winter Eddie sat in his bathtub<br>and shot his brains out. My daughter<br>and I remember well Eddie and the magic beans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">They were outside every summer.<br>Eddie was old; Tinka got to be 22,<br>mostly hairless, and dotted<br>with red sores. Blind. Deaf.<br>Eddie carried her down<br>the stairs. She couldn\u2019t squat.<br>We debated the dog-year myth<br>of 7 to 1, wondered what the smell<br>of cigar and dog decay was like<br>inside his house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Every June Eddie planted beans,<br>saved seed of scarlet runner beans<br>his wife started decades earlier.<br>He handed out those beans to our kids.<br>Hot pink and bright purple when shelled \u2013<br>before they went black with purple<br>polka-dots as they dried. We called<br>them Eddie\u2019s magic beans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">__________<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:25px\"><strong>Needing Feed<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">I wished that the orange tractor decorated with holiday lights across the parking lot was really a sleigh drawn by two draft horses festooned with bronze bells when I tripped the electric eye that opened the left-hand door of the pet store. From the first step in, the smell was fetid. A ferret habitat installed next to where people stomp the snow off their boots. I ignore the ferrets on the false theory of <em>No see \u2018em, no smell \u2018em<\/em> as I remember the teenage girl who put her ferret in a cigar box rigged to a zipline and sent him sailing. I go pas cat climbers whose third stories feature a round hole an owl might like. Avoid display of kitty whiffle balls with bells in them that invariably roll under a couch. Ditto fake mice with feathers. Cat litters promise no odors and compact clumping. Skip cats:&nbsp; I\u2019m of the dog clan \u2013 on my way to the maze of dog kibble made of chicken, beef, venison, salmon, bits of spleen and liver. Thankful this store doesn\u2019t sell box turtles. I spent three months buying crickets and strawberries for a third-grade classroom turtle named Count Turt who needed a refuge for a summer vacation. Full stop at parakeets, tropical light yellows and blues on a winter day. Cheery-busy despite breeding mills and avian flu. I once read a murder mystery whose detective strategized with her budgie on how to locate the missing corpse. Pass dog chew toys: slivers of elk antler and twisted lengths of bull penis marketed as bully sticks. I need training treats \u2013 low calorie, tasty morsels\u2013and kibble. Come, good dog. Come again, come to my hand. I close my eyes to the fading smell of ferret. Light-headed as if the dried out, baked down flesh of creatures in bags on shelves reconstitutes. Rewilds. Bull. Wild elk. Newborn lamb. Free-flowing river in spawning season. Howls of wolves and coyotes. I have no idea how my vegetarian friend shops here for her Maine coon cat. My dogs like carrots.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">__________<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Tricia Knoll<\/strong> has lived with dogs, either one or two at a time, for nearly 60 years. They show up in her poetry along with the trees, histories, fantasies and more that weave into her poetry which is widely published in journals and anthologies. Nine collections are in print either as chapbooks or full-length books. Knoll is a Contributing Editor to the online journal <em>Verse Virtual<\/em>. Website: <a href=\"http:\/\/triciaknoll.com\/\">triciaknoll.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>__________<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"438\" height=\"211\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/01\/boudin-logo-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-15484\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/01\/boudin-logo-1.jpg 438w, https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/01\/boudin-logo-1-300x145.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 438px) 100vw, 438px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-large-font-size\">\ud83e\udca0 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/2025\/03\/17\/chloe-goes-to-college\/\">Back<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/2025\/03\/17\/its-nice-to-be-kneaded\/\">Next<\/a> \ud83e\udca1<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">To learn more about submitting your work to <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/boudin-submissions\/\">Boudin<\/a><\/em> or applying to McNeese State University&#8217;s Creative Writing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/mfa-application-submissions\/\">MFA program<\/a>, please visit Submissions for details.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What If the Symbol Were a Puppy?, Tinka and the Magic Beans, &amp; Needing Feed Tricia Knoll __________ What If the Symbol Were A Puppy? The puppy promisedits only lifeto comfort, healto the end of each day,attending even night screams. What if it were taught with patiencenot to bite or make war on heels and&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[228,1],"tags":[75,145,18],"class_list":["post-19091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-second-annual-pet-writing-contest","category-uncategorized","tag-boudin","tag-poetry-2","tag-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19091"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19297,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19091\/revisions\/19297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}