While Tolstoy wrote outdoors,

his goat

would eye him suspiciously,

making sure he wrote nothing

that was anti-goat,

although usually the goat (whose

name happened to be Ivan)

wasn’t quite sure he understood what

the great man

was actually writing about.

But if Tolstoy should ever happen to write the word ‘goat’,

Ivan was instantly ready to butt him down off his wooden

chair as violently as he possibly could.

So Tolstoy

always watched himself very carefully and only wrote the word

‘goat’ when he was sure the goat wasn’t staring at him,

or else he wrote indoors.

————

Joseph Buehler lives with his wife Trish near Bethlehem, Georgia.  He is a retired deputy property appraiser for Sarasota County, Florida. He has published three short stories in the Kansas Magazine and a short story in the Canadian Forum and has published three poems recently in Bumble Jacket Miscellany. He enjoys all types of poetry, whether humorous or serious; many poems should combine both elements, and that is what he strives to do.