Two Poems by Derek Webster

Video of a Cougar, YouTube

She swats the air in front of him, forepaws wide,
wants to lop off his head and lope off to hide
her cubs trotting behind her down the rocky trail.
No! No! he gasps, tripping backward, arms raised.
Scarlet, orange, and pink in the viral trees.
I am watching the vicarious thrill of his fear
grow dull. Stop stalling and pounce already.
But I know he’ll survive. He pleads for donations

to preserve wildlife habitat, stop the grass lawns
moving up the hillside. I can’t take this anymore.
“Our long national nightmare is over” the next
clip proclaims. In my sleep, her prowling flank
becomes permethrin, then diazinon, condensing
in the saddle of a mountain lake, riding the fog.

The Boy’s Own Annual, 1879-1967

Biggles lends us his shining machete
and pith helmet moldy with jungle rain.
Rapt at bedtime, we lie awake rehearsing
his machine-gun lesson to the Zulus,
swoon for the lilywhite maidens he burns
from their teepees, raised by the Sioux.
Civilization is a wizened forearm
holding a plate of cucumber sandwiches.

Our manservant Semper Fidelis – a prince
of Bengal before losing to us – puts out the light.
In dreams we untie Mother from the rails
and bring mustachioed Lothario to heel.
We’ve all the advice a million boys could hope for
on which of the lesser nations to conquer.

Derek Webster’s second collection of poems, National Animal, appears in spring 2024. His first book Mockingbird was a finalist for the Gerald Lampert Award for best poetry debut in Canada. He received an MFA from Washington University in St. Louis, where he studied with Carl Phillips, and is the founding editor of Maisonneuve magazine. Recent work appears in Blackbox Manifold, Columba, yolk., Font, and The Honest Ulsterman and is forthcoming in Stand, The Walrus, Grain, and The Ampersand. He lives in Montreal and Toronto. www.derekwebsterwriter.com