Chicken Soup

Cecilia is pretty sure
she caught the cold
from the driver of the #22--
nice guy though.

Everyone who sees
her suffering with it
has said, "chicken soup."
But she can only think

of her mother's excuse
for chicken soup: the broth
tasting off like anise;
and Cecilia had never

known there was chicken
gristle, but her mother
had found whatever there
was in chickens that

should never go into soup;
and, how like everything,
she remembers about
her mother's attempts

in life -- it was always the taste
of anise and gristle
Cecilia chewed on hoping
for comfort and a cure.



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photo courtesy CJ Sage

• Editor-in-Chief,
Disquieting Muses
• Host of FM91.5, KKUP's
"Out of Our Minds"

     Dancing Bear lives in the San Francisco bay area. His poems, art interviews, reviews and photographs have been published in many journals, including New York Quarterly, Zuzu's Petals Quarterly, Slipstream, Rio Grande Review, Pearl, Poetry Motel and Nerve Cowboy. He is Editor-In-Chief of the on-line magazine Disquieting Muses (disquietingmuses.com) and the 1999 winner of the Mindfire Chapbook Contest for his manuscript Blue Hand, later this year a chapbook Atlas(Red Fruit Press) will be released. Dancing Bear is the host of a weekly poetry show "Out of Our Minds" for public supported KKUP 91.5 FM in Cupertino, CA.

Mitakuye oyasin (All my relations),
Dancing Bear