GROUNDHOG DAY
(a false apology poem)

 

This is just to say

I often make an appearance
on February 2
to look around
meet my neighbors
NOT to predict weather

I'm hibernating
after all
tucked in my snug burrow
since first frost
fat from my summer gorge

Call me what you will
woodchuckwhistle-pigmarmot

Shadow
or
No shadow

Forgive me
you have six more weeks
of winter
while I sleepwarm

underground.

 

 

False apology poems are inspired by "This Is Just to Say," a poem by William Carlos Williams, in which he ate some plums that he knew belonged to someone else. In the last stanza, he asked for forgiveness, but was not really sorry...just like the groundhog in this poem.