What if Our Leaders

walked in the woods and picked up rocks, special rocks
to add to their special boxes they had since they were old enough
to realize the rocks were their cousins? What if they loved hamsters
and named them after their favorite rocks? What if

when waking to an escaped hamster’s screech, they cried
because they realized how powerless they were
to stop the two midnight cats surrounding the rodent,
powerless to stop anything larger than themselves? What if

they realized most things were larger than themselves?
What if they went out every night to look at the stars, convinced
there had to be life on other planets—life that mattered? Then wake

from this dream to find yourself alone in the night,
only the cat next to you, twitching his paws,
yawning his mouth wide, showing all his beautiful, deadly teeth.

.

D. Dina Friedman has published in many literary journals including Salamander, Rattle, The Sun, Mass Poetry, Chautauqua Journal, Crab Orchard Review, Cider Press Review, Hawaii Pacific Review, Cold Mountain Review, Lilith, Negative Capability and Rhino and received four Pushcart Prize nominations. She is the author of two books of poetry, Wolf in the Suitcase (Finishing Line Press) and Here in Sanctuary, Whirling (Querencia Press). Dina’s fiction includes the short-story collection Immigrants (Creators Press) and two YA novels, Escaping Into the Night (Simon and Schuster) and Playing Dad’s Song (Farrar Straus Giroux). To learn more about Dina, visit her website at www.ddinafriedman.com. and subscribe to her blog on living a creative life in a creatively challenged universe at ddinafriedman.substack.com.