Renee Emerson

A panther stalked the scrub woods
of Hickory Withe, Tennessee;
a shadow, specter, half-truth 
or complete lie, like most 
of what my father ever told me. 

I never saw it up high in tree limbs, 
on porches, prowling ditches, 
down on Donelson Drive at dusk 
(he swears—right over his car).

What danger in it anyway, a beast
so foreign to our settled squares
of farm and field as to be Dragon, 
kraken, Grendel, lurking 
in the darkest places outside our home.
My father, sometimes a good father,
did not want his daughters to roam.

Renee Emerson is the author of the poetry collections Keeping Me Still (Winter Goose Publishing 2014), Threshing Floor (Jacar Press 2016), and Church Ladies (Fernwood Press 2023). She lives in the Midwest with her husband and children, and you can find her online at Reneeemerson.substack.com.