Judith Pulman

The Meek Shall Inherit

The whole earth? I’ll take one plot,
Small, to die into and one to dance
Upon. Beyond that,
 
If you’ve got plenty of nothing,
Well, that’s something, in fact. Devil you know aside,
There’s a way that havings string
 
Us along, the teases, so that we act
Possessed by our panoply of gewgaws,
Made even odder due to no take-backs.
 
Enter the meek,
Who won’t say no. Knock-kneed,
They receive, refraining from their speech
 
Since the whole hairy heir transaction
Hinges on their quiet. Is this shrewd,
All this non-action
 
For decades, just to be blessed
By the largest Balkan stamp
Collection in the Pacific Northwest?
 
Surely some gifts, like Chihuahuas,
Are better not to get.
The creature doesn’t love you, it yips all day,
And the neighbors will know if you eat it.

Judith Pulman

Judith Pulman graduated from the Rainier Writing Workshop MFA program in 2012 and has publications forthcoming in The New Ohio Review, The Los Angeles Review, and Basalt Magazine. She lives in Portland, Oregon with two guinea pigs. Her website is www.Judithpulman.com.